The anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) has extended support to Anna Hazare’s anti-graft crusade. But it wants the 74-year-old Gandhain and his team to reciprocate for its objective – sovereignty of Assam. The anti-talks group of the outlawed outfit is headed
by its military chief Paresh Barua who is the only top leader at large and opposed to the peace process unless ‘colonial India’ discusses the issue of sovereignty.

Manipur does not want to be drawn into a debate on whether the fight to scrap a law that gives soldiers the licence to kill is bigger than the fight against corruption. But this is at the heart of the northeastern state's disconnect with Anna Hazare's crusade. Manipur was unresponsive when the nation rallied behind Hazare after his arrest and backed his fast for the jan lokpal bill.

Suspected United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) militants blew up a railway track near western Assam's Goalpara town and two rival rebel groups fought it out in central Assam's Karbi Anglong district as the Northeast defied a 17-hour boycott call by 12 insurgent outfits to celebrate the 65th Independence Day.

A Northeast Frontier Railway spokesperson said miscreants damaged a 10m stretch of a broad gauge track near Goalpara early Monday morning. "A goods train carrying fuel was scheduled to cross that stretch minutes after the blast," he said.

Sixty-four years after it declared independence from British India along with Pakistan, the militant National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) has slammed former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the Naga crisis. "Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru held divergent views on the Naga political problem. While Gandhi believed Nagas had the right to be independent Nehru wanted to crush them by force," said NSCN (I-M) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah at Camp Hebron, the outfit's peace headquarters near Dimapur, Nagaland's commercial hub 75 km west of capital Kohima.

Imphal, Aug 1: At least 5 people including a student were killed and many others injured after a powerful bomb exploded in Imphal West district, Manipur, said officials.

The bomb was thrown at a busy Sangakpham area by suspected militants.

The explosion was so powerful that it smashed windowpanes of some of the nearby houses, said officials, further adding that some injured were in critical condition.

The injured were rushed to nearby hospitals. Okram Ibobi Singh, Chief Minister along with some officials visited the spot. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast.