India's insurgency-racked northeast was reeling yesterday from one of its deadliest waves of violence in years, as police reported more killings overnight that brought the death toll to 53 with 141 injured.
A string of bloody blasts and shootouts in adjoining Assam and Nagaland states on Saturday killed at least 44 people. Overnight another five victims died in hospitals, while four others were killed in fresh violence, police said yesterday.
In New York, UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan condemned the attacks, saying he had learned of the violence with "shock and dismay."
The attacks came as India on Saturday commemorated the birth of the country's independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, a champion of non-violence.
Fifteen people were wounded yesterday when rebels lobbed a grenade at shoppers in a teeming market in northern Assam's Sonitpur district, 180km from Gauhati, a police spokesman said.
Late on Saturday, one person was killed when gunmen fired on a train near Bagmari village in eastern Assam.
Three National Democratic Front of Bodoland militants were killed when an explosive device they were planting exploded in northern Assam's Darrang district early yesterday, police said.
The bloodshed began early Saturday in Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland, when three bombs exploded almost simultaneously in what an official called the state's worst terrorist strike.
Police said a plastic explosive appeared to have been used in a powerful blast at a railway station in Dimapur that dug a large crater next to a platform packed with passengers awaiting a train.
"There were limbs everywhere and blood was splattered all over," said student leader T. Zheviho.
Nagaland authorities blamed the attacks on rebels seeking to disrupt the peace process.
Services were planned Sunday in churches across Nagaland, which has a large Christian population, to pray for the 28 people killed by the three Dimapur bombs.
"We're in a state of shock and disbelief. The only way we can heal the wounds is by offering prayers in memory of the departed and for the well-being of those who lived," said G. Ginam, a state Baptist council member.
The attacks shattered the relative calm of Nagaland, where a truce has been in force since 1997 with the region's largest separatist group, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland. The group denied any hand in the blasts.
In one of the worst strikes in Assam, gunmen on Saturday shot at shoppers in a market at Makri Jhora village, 290km west of Gauhati. Police said 11 were killed and 12 injured.
Assam police official Khagen Sharma blamed the attacks on two of around 30 rebel groups fighting for greater autonomy or independence in the region.
More than 50,000 people have died in the remote northeast in nearly six decades of fighting between security forces and rebel groups, who accuse New Delhi of exploiting the area's natural resource wealth.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS