GUWAHATI: Nine more bodies were recovered from a village in Baksa district on Saturday morning, taking the toll to 32 in the violence unleashed by NDFB-Songbijit militants in Bodoland Territorial Administration Districts (BTADC) area in Assam.

The bodies of the victims, including four children and two women, were recovered from Khagrabari village under Salbari sub-division adjacent to the Manas National Park, official sources said.

Bodies of two children were identified as Ilina Khatun and Ariful Islam.

Three children, aged between seven and ten years, who were hiding in a forest on the banks of river Beki were also rescued, the sources said.

Besides Chirang and parts of Dhubri districts, indefinite curfew has also been imposed in Kokrajhar and Baksa districts where 23 people were killed.

The Army has been staging flag marches in the violence-hit areas to instil confidence among people and to bring the situation under control, the sources said.

The violence started when heavily armed NDFB-S militants entered a house and shot dead three members of a family, including two women, and injured an infant of a minority community near Ananda Bazar area in Baksa district on Thursday.

This was followed by indiscriminate firing by the insurgents at Balapara-I village in neighbouring Kokrajhar district in the early hours on Friday, which left eight persons dead and injuring several others in their own houses.

Last night, 12 bullet-riddled bodies, including those of five women and a child, were recovered from Nankekhadrabari and Nayanguri villages in Baksa district, where nearly 100 houses and a wooden bridge were set ablaze by the ultras.

Meanwhile, the police fired in the air at Basbari in Baksa district when a mob armed with spears and sticks tried to set ablaze a Forest Range office on Saturday morning.

The agitators complained that their houses had been burnt down by militants and government had failed to protect their lives and property, official sources said.

A total of 22 persons have so far been arrested in connection with the violence.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) A.P. Rout told reporters that investigation had revealed involvement of NDFB(S) in the violence.

Six of the ten companies of paramilitary forces sent by the Centre to tackle the situation have reached Assam with three of them sent to Kokrajhar and two to Baksa, Rout said.

Another company was on way to Udalguri district under BTAD as a preventive measure, he said.

On operations by the Army to control the situation, the ADGP said counter-insurgency operations by the troops were on for a long time, but now extra forces had been posted there in view of the current situation. 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is keeping a close watch on the Assam situation.

National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon briefed Singh on Saturday morning on the situation, PMO sources said.

Singh then talked to Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth and told him that all help should be extended to the state government to ensure peace.

Expressing deep anguish and sorrow over the killings, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had on Friday decried the role of sectarian and militant groups.

At least 32 persons, including children and women, were killed by heavily armed NDFB(S) militants in Kokrajhar and Baksa districts of Assam.

Shoot-at-sight orders have been issued and indefinite curfew imposed in the two districts falling under Bodoland Territorial Administration Districts (BTAD) area. — PTI

KABUL: More than 2,100 are confirmed to have been killed after a landslide crashed into a remote mountain village in northeast Afghanistan, a spokesman for the provincial governor said on Saturday.

"More then 2,100 people from 300 families are all dead," Naweed Forotan, a spokesman for the Badakhshan provincial governor, told Reuters.

The United Nations said the focus was now on more than 4,000 displaced by Friday's disaster. There is a risk of further landslides in the area, officials said. — Reuters

NEW DELHI: BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Saturday expressed concern that public broadcaster Doordarshan was struggling to maintain its professional freedom.

“We have witnessed the horrors of the emergency when freedom of press and freedom of expression were suppressed. It is a blot on our democracy. On days such as this, I feel very sad to see our national TV channel struggling to maintain its professional freedom,” Modi wrote on his Twitter handle.

Greeting journalists on the World Press Freedom Day on May 3, the Gujarat Chief Minister said a free press was a democracy’s cornerstone and must be preserved in letter and spirit.

His comment came after Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar, in a hard-hitting letter on Friday, acknowledged that certain portions of Modi’s interview to Doordarshan “were apparently edited”.

Sircar, in the letter to the Prasar Bharati Board, also pointed a finger at Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari for failing to grant the public broadcaster “operational autonomy” that it has been seeking for years.

Doordarshan and All-India Radio function under the Prasar Bharati Board.

Pleading ignorance about the letter, Tewari told IANS, “I have not seen the letter. It was not addressed to me, so how am I supposed to comment?” — IANS

GONDA: Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma, who has been censured by the Election Commission (EC) for his insulting remarks against Narendra Modi, has stoked a fresh controversy by comparing the BJP prime ministerial candidate to a "monster".

"A person, who discriminates between Hindus and Muslims in this country and create hatred between them, is not a human being, but a monster," the Congress leader said addressing an election rally in Maskanwa town last night.

"Modi must tell whether he is a human being or not. On the massacre of the people in Gujarat you (Modi) say that it's a reaction. You tease Muslims by stating that even if a puppy comes under you vehicle you feel sad," he said.

The EC had two days back censured Beni for 'insulting' remarks against Modi and warned that further violation could result in banning his campaign activity.

Beni said a person like Modi is an "enemy" of the country and democracy.

"If such a person comes to power then self respect of 85 per cent of downtrodden people in India will end and dominance of handful persons will prevail in the society," he alleged.

The minister said Modi talks about Congress-free India but "even Britishers could not remove Congress, how will BJP do that".

Beni said Congress was the party of the entire nation, whereas BJP was the party of only one-fourth of the country.

The Union steel minister also took a dig at the Gujarat chief minister's educational qualification, saying, "I am a law graduate from Lucknow University and Modi ran away from his house at the age of 18 to sell tea. His degree is fake. How is he going to compete with an educated person."

On being asked about Baba Ramdev's comment against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Beni said the yoga guru has gone "mad" and he won't comment on him. — PTI

AMETHI: Attacking BJP and its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi over election expenditure, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that corporates were pumping money into the saffron party’s campaign and asked it come clean on the source of funds.

“They (BJP) do politics of two-three corporates as they gift them mota paisa (hefty money). From where is the money for big cutouts and posters coming?” Gandhi, who arrived in his constituency for a two-day campaign, asked at an election rally.

He alleged that Modi gave nearly Rs 26,000 crore of electricity and Rs 15,000 crore of land to one industrialist, which is much more than the Rs 30,000 crore that  Congress gave to the poor through MNREGA in a year.

“Please ask BJP where do they get crores of rupees for such posters. Is it Modi’s money?.... They ask us why we give free money to poor through MNREGA, food guarantee scheme. Poor does not get free money. They work for it, whereas free funds are given to Adani,” he said.

“I am not against corporates. But they should be given facilities following rules and regulations. In Gujarat, it is Adani who is getting facilities and not the poor”, Gandhi added.

Describing the elections as a fight between two ideologies, Gandhi said while Congress wanted to take Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians along, the other side was stoking politics of “anger“.

“Their (BJP) leaders used to criticise, abuse and keep poor at bay while we (Congress) talk of unity and to take country forward,” Gandhi said.

“The difference is that they want to keep the ATM with themselves, while we want to give the ATM to the poor”, he added.

“They want to create a divide between Hindus and Muslims and want to see them fighting. They want brother to fight against brother, unlike us”, he said.

Hitting out at his opponents, Aam Aadmi Party’s Kumar Vishwas and BJP’s Smriti Irani, Gandhi said they would run away from Amethi after the elections.

Without taking the names of rival candidates, he said the people who come from outside are angry at the relations that the Gandhi family shares with the people of Amethi.

“Let Congress form the government at the Centre, I will show them what can be done in Amethi.... People who come from outside can say whatever they like but Gandhi family shares a relation of love with people of Amethi. They will not be seen once elections are over,” he said.

“Those who are contesting (against me) will run away after election. I have family relations with Amethi. I came here at the age of 12 years with my father (Rajiv Gandhi). I don’t have political relation with this place,” Gandhi said, striking an emotional chord.

“Some persons come here, tear posters, throw stones, abuse and return. They did not come here for the next five years.

I am here for my lifetime,” Gandhi said. — PTI

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday said it will consider the issue of the appointment of the next Army Chief at a meeting of its top brass next week.

“We have received a reference from the Defence Ministry and the issue is under examination. But no decision has been taken so far. The matter has so far not been placed on the agenda of the ‘full commission’ (the Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners),” a senior EC official told PTI.

“The meeting could take place on Monday or Tuesday, where the matter would be considered,” the official said.

The poll panel will consider the matter in the light of its March 27 order that appointments, promotions, tenders and procurements of defence forces are not covered under the Model Code of Conduct in the ongoing elections as well as any other election in the future as well as complaints from BJP that the government was rushing with the appointment of the next Chief of Army Staff.

Amid strong opposition by the BJP to the appointment of the next Army Chief, the government had referred the matter to the Election Commission, saying any decision would be taken only after getting its nod.

“The matter is before the Election Commission. We want to strictly follow all the procedures before taking any final decision on the issue,” Defence Minister A.K. Antony had said on Friday when asked about the status of appointing the next Army Chief.

The matter was sent to the EC by the Defence Ministry earlier this week, though the poll panel has already said appointments, promotions, tenders and procurements are not covered under the Model Code of Conduct in the ongoing elections as well as any other election in the future.

On why the Ministry has sent the matter to the Election Commission despite its March 27 order, highly-placed Defence Ministry sources said such matters are important and it was felt that nod of all authorities concerned should be taken before proceeding.

The BJP has been opposing the appointment of the next Army Chief by the UPA Government, arguing that there was no hurry to do so and the matter should be left to the next government.

Army Vice-Chief Lt. Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag is the front-runner for appointment to the top post which will fall vacant on July 31 after the retirement of present Army Chief Gen. Bikram Singh.

The EC official also said the panel has not received any reference from the government on the "snoopgate" commission of inquiry. — PTI