Drugs seized from train
Rangiya (Assam): A huge quantity of drugs was seized from a woman who was arrested from UP Kanchanjunga Express in Karmup district on Saturday, railway police said. Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of RPF and GRP personnel launched an operation in the train on its way from Sealdah to Guwahati and apprehended a woman. During search operations, the security forces recovered more than one thousand ‘Nitrosan’ tablets from the woman. The woman, identified as Rina Das, had boarded the train at Alipurduar and during interrogation claimed that the packet was handed over to her by an auto-driver Arjun Singh at Alipurduar JN station for carrying it to Dimapur. Singh was also on the same train but managed to escape and a search has been launched to nab him, sources added. (PTI)
ULFA cadre killed in encounter
Goalpara (Assam): An ULFA insurgent was shot dead in an encounter in Goalpara district bordering Meghalaya on Saturday, the police said. On a tip off about the militants entering Hatigaon- Suarmari village under Agia police station, the police of the district and Guwahati City launched a joint operation in the area to track him out, Superintendent of Police Nitul Gogoi told PTI. On seeing the security forces, the extremist attempted to flee into the jungles by firing at the policemen, who retaliated killing him on the spot. A pistol, a hand grenade, some detonators and cartridges were recovered of the slain ultra who was identified as Monaj Rabha alias Sunami Asom, the SP added. (PTI)
Stray leopard caught
Jorhat (Assam): A leopard, which created panic among people for the past two weeks after straying out of the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, was captured by tea garden labourers in Jorhat district, forest officials said here on Saturday. The leopard had created panic in Dalim Khanikor Tea estate at Selanghat under Mariani forest division for the last two weeks and injured two labourers who had gone to collect firewood, besides killing several domestic animals, Tea garden labourers spotted the leopard on Friday and chased it with sharp weapons, axe, sticks and fire crackers forcing the animal to enter a shed where the people managed to tie it up. The leopard was injured in the process and was handed over to the Mariani forest department from where it was sent to the Wildlife Care and Rehabilitation Centre at Panbari in Kaziranga National Park. (PTI)
Quadruplet born in Nagaland
Kohima: A couple of Nagaland has got quadruplet, with three boys and a girl at Dimapur town recently, reportedly for the first time in the state. According to sources, the Naga couple, which was childless for last four years of their marriage, got their quadruplet on Thursday last in a private nursing home at Dimapur following the result of IVF treatment. The quadruplet weighed 4.40 pounds, 3.80 pounds two of them and the other is 3.30 pounds. The babies are said to be born healthy and are now being taken care in the Intensive Care Unit as pre cautionary measures. (UNI)
Two suspected Naxals held in Assam
Guwahati: Two suspected Naxalites today apprehended by security forces from the Tinsukia district of Assam. The two alleged Maoists were intercepted by a joint squad of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and state police in the Kako Pathar-Nayamati area of the district when they were near a picket erected to nab suspects, officials said. The two have been identified by security forces as Papu Gogoi (28), a resident of Dibrugarh in the state and Tapan Neogi (21) a resident of Tinsukia. A Chinese made pistol and a magazine have also been recovered from them, they said. (PTI)
Tea grower kidnapped in Assam
Jaishidhi: A small tea grower was kidnapped today by suspected NDFB (Ronjan) militants from Jaishidhi in Assam’s Sonitpur district bordering Arunchal Pradesh. The tea planter, Bhadreswar Nath (45), was abducted when he was working in his tea garden about one km away from his residence, police said.
Nath’s family said he went to his tea garden on a motor bike at around 8 am and when he was supervising the plucking of tea leaves in the garden, two youths on a motorbike whisked him away. (PTI)