HPC-D Violates SoO, Alleges Mizoram CM

Aizawl, Jul 28 : Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla today accused the underground group Hmar Peoples Convention-Democratic (HPC-D) of violating a suspension of operation (SoO) agreement it had signed with the Centre in 2007.

"Several insurgent groups of the NE came under the umbrella of UPF (United Peoples Forum) in August 2007. I am not sure about the exact date to begin a political dialogue with the Central government. HPC-D was part of the UPF," Lal Thanhawla said in the Mizoram state assembly today.

"According to the agreement, the HPC-D was supposed to stop all kind of anti-social activities.

Instead, the underground group continued extortion rackets in northeastern parts of Mizoram.

As that was not what the HPC-D was supposed to do, we had to inform the central government," the Chief Minister continued.

Even though the HPC-D argued that the suspension of operation did not include Assam and Mizoram, the Central Government maintained that it did, he added.

On the alleged suspension of political dialogue with the HPC-D by the State government, Lal Thanhawla said, "We are not unwilling to talk.

But, it is the Centre, and not us, who are to hold talks with the insurgent group."

''If an insurgent group continues anti-social activities notwithstanding a truce, it should be treated as dacoits. So are offshoots of a main insurgent group,'' Lal Thanhawla added.

Pointing out that the Centre, in collaboration with state polices, has begun combing operation in Assam-Tripura-Mizoram border areas to flush out militants, Lal Thanhawla warned that if the HPC-D continues underground activities in Mizoram-Manipur border areas, the Centre would crack down on them.

To make this statement, the Chief Minister intervened when State Home Minister R Lalzirliana was answering queries raised by some members pertaining to the Sinlung Hills Development Council (SHDP), in the Hmar-dominated northeastern part of Mizoram, whose council members resigned en masse recently.

The HPC-D was an offshoot of the Hmar Peoples Convention, following dissatisfaction with the 1994 peace agreement, and continued to fight self-government for the Hmars in northeastern parts of Mizoram

Real Heroes: Bina Helps Militancy Scarred Widows

By Tridip Mandal

Imphal: Manipur's Binalaxmi Nepram, who's seen how militancy has permanently scarred women in her state, has set up the Manipur Women Gun Survivours Network for widows who have lost their husbands in the ongoing conflict in the state.

More than 20,000 people have lost their lives in the killing fields of Manipur in the last five decades and every year more than three hundred widows are created because of the ongoing conflict in Manipur. Everyday three to four Manipuris are shot dead and most of them are young men between the age group of 19-40 leaving behind young mothers and their small children.

Binalaxmi's group helps these women cope with their grief.

One such widow is Nutan who was married for just two years. She was left widowed with a newborn child when one day her husband vanished.

"My husband left that day to go meet his mother in the market and he hasn't returned since then. I have been waiting for his return. His mother also came looking for him that day. We looked for that day and the nect day but could not find him," Nutan said.

Nutan added, "There is this woman in our colony who is a commando officer's sister, she asked her brother about my husband and he said to go to the mortuary. When we went there, we found his dead body just lying there."

After Bina heard other such stories she decided that compensation was just not enough.

"When I started meeting women and listen to their testimony and stories that how a woman lost 2 sons in one day, a women who lost 3 members of her family in a conflict, I knew that this is not fair to them to just forget and about the compensation from the government it is just not enough. Nobody is even bothered about how these women get on with their lives," Bina said.

So Bina chalked out a strategy. She went from village to village, opened bank accounts and gave these women interest free loans and financial aid up to Rs 9000.

Today these women earn a living by making incense sticks, weaving cloth or rearing fish. Each one of them has become self sufficient.

Working with 80 women in four districts of Manipur, Bina gets most of her funding from donations and her research work with Control Arms Foundation of India.

The guns haven't stopped blazing in Manipur and Bina knows that there are many more women who need her help across the state.

Bina said, "this is the fire of change that can really help the situation in the state. This is not a cliche as I speak this is not a cliche. This is what I have felt and this what I know that we can transform the villages and states in this country."

Source: CNN-IBN

Lalrina Renthlei Wins Maiden Snooker Title For Mizoram

Chennai, Jul 27 : Mizoram produced its first National champion in any form of cue sports as 20-year old Lalrina Renthlei from Aizwal emerged winner in the junior snooker event here Wednesday, winning two of his three semifinal league matches.

Renthlei won the title on the countback after he tied with ML Lakshman (Karnataka) and Himanshu Jain (Andhra), all with two wins and a loss apiece. Jain finished second, followed by Laksham and Mundir Sherazi (Karnataka) who lost all his three outings.

Renthlei, a self-taught player who learnt the basics by watching videos of legendary Steve Davis, made fleeting appearances on the Indian circuit for the past couple of years, and finished third in the 9-ball National championship and fifth in 8-ball this year.

‘This is my happiest moment and although I didn’t play all that well, may be 60 per cent of my potential, I am very pleased that I managed to win my first title.

‘I dedicate this win to my father who passed away in 2004 and Mukesh Rehani (who expired this year) who toughened me mentally when he visited Mizoram for two weeks,’ said the second year Commerce student of Govt College in Aizwal.

Last year, Renthlei made an early exit at the Pune Nationals, but performed well in the senior section, making it to the round of 32 where he lost to Karnataka’s IH Manudev.

‘I got thrashed by a local player in the juniors at Pune where I arrived without much practice. I then worked hard and fared better in the seniors, reaching pre-quarter-finals,’ said Renthlei who took the snooker seriously after giving up a promising career in basketball where he represented Mizoram in several Nationals championships.

Hours before Renthlei created history, Asian Asian and defending champion Alok Kumar (PSPB) tripped to a shock defeat against Shankar Rao (Andhra), but recovered to win his next game Anshul Mittal (Haryana) in the senior National Billiards championship.

The 42-year old Alok hailing from Punjab and the defending champion struggled in the 9am Group B match against the unheralded Rao and lost 1-3, but was back on his feet later in the day when he beat Mittal 3-0.

‘In the 100-up format, you cannot take anything for granted. Anybody can win on a given day and 9 am was a bit early in the day for me.

‘Also, in the past couple of months, after winning the Asian title, I have been playing a lot of pool and that probably affected my billiards game. I need to improve a lot,’ he said.

The results:

Junior Boys snooker (s-f league): ML Lakshman (Kar) bt Mundir Sherazi (Kar) 3-2 (40-66, 77-15, 59-10, 58-61, 59-65); Lalrina Renthlei (Miz) bt Mundir Sherazi (Kar) 3-1 (39-59, 65-57, 58-17, 65-46); Himanshu Jain (AP) bt Lakshman 3-0 (69-15, 49-45, 87(44)-06); Renthlei bt Jain 3-1 (71(52)-17, 18-65, 75-36, 73-19); Jain bt Sherazi 3-2 (51-42, 41-67, 58-67, 71-44, 76(45)-16); Lakshman bt Renthlei 3-2 (18-85(46),74-47, 28-84 ,66-44, 68-41).

Final Standings: Renthlei 1, Jain 2, Lakshman 3, Sherazi 4.

Senior billiards (preliminary league):

Group A: IV Rajiv (AP) bt MS Reddy (Rlys) 3-1; Prem Prakash (TN) bt Jai Shankar Sha (Jhar) 3-0; Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Vishal Madan (Mah) 3-1.

Group B: S Simhachallam (Rlys) bt Anshul Mittal (Har) 3-0; Shanker Rao (AP) bt Alok Kumar (PSPB) 3-1; Nitin Kohli (UP) bt Utsav Ramani (Guj) 3-1; Alok Kumar bt Mittal 3-0.

Group C: Ketan Chawla (MP) bt Rajkumar (Kar) 3-1; Siddarth Parekh (Rlys) bt Sanket Saurabh (Bho) 3-0; Geet Sethi (Guj) bt D Bhuvaneshwaran (TN) 3-0.

Group D: Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) bt Akram Khan (WB) 3-1; Arif Akthar (Chd) bt Abineet Sharma (MP) 3-0; Arun Agarwal (Mah) bt Subrat Das (WB) 3-0.

Group E: Shivam Arora (Bho) bt Kankan Shamsi (UP) 3-2; Saurav Kothari (PSPB) bt Abhishek Saini (Har) 3-0; Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Aditya Agarwal (Rlys)3-0.

Group F: Shakeel Ahmed (WB) bt SA Saleem (TN) 3-0; Mahesh Jagdule (Mah) bt Kunal Manchanda (Raj) 3-0; Saleem bt Amit Sharma (Del) 3-0.

Group G: B Bhaskar (Kar) w/o Jayanth Menghani (Raj); IH Manudev (Kar) bt MC Manoj (TN) 3-2.

Group H: Shyam Jagtiani (WB) bt Amit Lath (Ori) 3-0; Durga Prasad (Rlys) bt Manish Jain (WB) 3-0; Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Dhvaj Haria (Guj) 3-1.

Mizoram Losing Land, Size Of A District, Says BJP

Aizawl, Jul 27 : Mizoram would soon lose its land, size of a district, due to the ongoing Indo-Bangladesh border fencing, the state unit of BJP said here today.

Leaders of the state BJP said, in a press conference, that the fence was being constructed at one to three kms from the actual border inside Mizoram.

''At this rate, Mizoram would soon lose its territory, the size of a district,'' the BJP leaders said.

The state BJP leaders further alleged that large number of Indian families living along the border have surrendered their land to the border fencing without receiving a single rupee as compensation.

''On the contrary, the chief executive members and executive members of the affected autonomous district councils grabbed a total of Rs 535,35,360 as compensation with fake land certificates,'' they said.

Pawan Hans Resumes Copter Services in Northeast

Agartala, Jul 27 : State-owned Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd, which suspended services in six northeastern states after Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu and four others were killed in a crash, has resumed operations in the region.

"We have asked all our bases in the northeastern region to resume helicopter services in the six states," a senior Pawan Hans official told IANS by phone from the firm's corporate office in Noida.

"On Tuesday, services with double-engine choppers instead of previous single-engine aircraft have resumed in Tripura and Sikkim. Gradually, this would start in other states," the official said.

According to the official, services were resumed after a thorough check of all aircraft.

The decision to suspend operations in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland and Manipur came after the April 30 crash that killed Khandu and two pilots, a personal security officer and the sister of the Tawang legislator.

A few days earlier, on April 19, 17 people were killed when a Pawan Hans helicopter crashed at the Tawang helipad, located at an altitude of 11,000 feet, in Arunachal Pradesh just as it was about to land.

Tripura Transport Secretary Kishore Ambuly told IANS: "Following the directive of the union home ministry, the Tripura government had earlier floated a tender to operate chopper services.

"Pawan Hans and a few other private companies had also participated in the offer and the state run company won the tender.

"Earlier the copter services were operated like other states of northeast India following an agreement between Pawan Hans and the Tripura government," Ambuly said.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma had taken up the issue with his counterparts in northeastern states to pressurise Pawan Hans and the central government to replace the age-old choppers in the region, another Tripura official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

He said Sangma had suggested operating double-engine choppers instead of single-engine aircraft in the northeast. However, a Pawan Hans official here said that was not an issue.

"Many helicopters with double-engines, including that of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and former Lok Sabha speaker G.M.C. Balayogi, have crashed in different parts of India," he said.

India's lone national helicopter company, Pawan Hans has been operating services for nine years in the northeast, the union home ministry subsidising fares by up to 75 percent.

"Pawan Hans was established with the primary objective of providing helicopter support services to the oil sector for offshore exploration operations, services in remote and hilly areas and charter services for promotion of tourism," company's official document said.

Furore Over IGNOU's Naga 'Faux Pas'

Agartala, Jul 27 : Looking forward to take up a course offered by Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) abroad? You can choose Nagaland - a relatively new country included in the prestigious university's website.

Unbelievable? Not really. Till Tuesday afternoon, the drop down menu of the "fees" section on the university's website, giving country-wise cost of each programme, identified Nagaland as a separate "country" and placed it in between USA and Ivory Coast.

Though Ignou corrected the mistake by evening, there was a volley of criticism from various quarters of society earlier in the day as soon as the matter came to light. Angry and sarcastic comments like "we are more than willing to hand it over to whoever wants it" and "typical mainland ignorance" started flooding social network sites and there was a great hue and cry everywhere.

"This is absolutely disgraceful. This is a faux pas par excellence," said Ezaz Hazarika, a former police officer and now a security expert of a foreign company.

When the matter was brought to the notice of Kishore Ambuly, the secretary of higher education (Tripura), he feigned ignorance. "I shall look into the matter," said Ambuly. Congress Legislature Party leader Ratan Lal Nath said he would take up the matter with higher authorities in New Delhi.

The mistake assumes significance not only for lack of knowledge on the part of the authorities concerned but also for the fact that it is likely to used by anti Indian elements active in the region, especially Naga militant outfits. KS Chakraborty, the director of Ignou's Agartala centre, also feigned ignorance about the faux pas.

Manipur Church Body Bats For Fair Elections

Imphal, Jul 27 : The All Manipur Christian Organization (AMCO) has intensified its ongoing campaign in the hills for persuading pastors and church leaders of the insurgency-hit state to remain neutral during election period.

This comes at a time when political parties have begun groundwork for the coming assembly polls likely to be held early next year. Out of total 60 legislators in the assembly, 20 are from the five hill districts of Senapati, Ukhrul, Tamenglong, Chandel and Churachanpur.

On Tuesday, Amco organized its 4th Pastors Advocacy Meeting at the Senapati district headquarters, which was attended by a large number of church leaders, pastors and Christians.

"Since the church is one of the most powerful institutions for Christians, pastors and church leaders should act impartially during the election period. We have launched our campaign to motivate them," said Amco president Rev Prim Vaiphei told this reporter on Tuesday.

Under any circumstance, church leaders should not interfere with poll-related matters though there might be threats and intimidations from several quarters, including the underground organizations, added Vaiphei.

"Who would come out to take up this task when the church leaders fail to advocate free and fair polls?" questioned Vaiphei. He, nevertheless, said Amco was a non-political organization and has nothing to do politics. "If any church leader is found indulging in poll malpractices or being influenced by any political party , the respective church would take action against the wrong-doers," warned Vaiphei.

Besides this, Amco is also campaigning against poppy and ganja cultivation by Christians in the hills and the indulgence of certain pastors in child trafficking cases.

On Monday, Amco held its campaign (seminar) at KBC centre church in Senapati under the motto "Truth, Justice, Love, Peace and Equality."

"We will hold similar seminars in Ukhrul on August 9 and at Churachanpur town later. We will also do so in other sub-divisions and small towns in the hills," said Vaiphei.

In May last year, Amco was instrumental in bringing about a solution to the ban on entry of Manipur vehicles in Nagaland by Naga Students' Federation (NSF) after holding talks with its Nagaland counterpart- Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC)- and various Naga civil bodies of the neighboring state.

Hmar Leader Held in Barak Valley For Ronmei Murder

Hmarkhawlien, Jul 27 : Police on Tuesday morning arrested Ngursangthang Hmar, a senior Hmar tribal leader, from the Barak Valley area of Assam in connection with the murder of Babul Rongmei, chairman of the Barak Valley Hill Tribes' Development Council.

Babul, a 42-year-old Rongmei Naga leader was shot dead on July 10 by three assailants at his Sabazpur village house, near Silchar Medical College Hospital.

One of the assailants who was caught and lynched by villagers after the incident was identified as Ringson Hmar of Manipur. Two others managed to flee on a motorcycle.

Prasanta Joyti Bhuiyan SP (Cachar) said police from Lakhipur raided the house of Ngursangthang Hmar at Lakhipur in Cachar and arrested him at 5 am on Tuesday.

"The investigation in connection with the murder is in progress. So far, four persons have been arrested in connection with the case. Hmar is now in custody of Silchar police and is being interrogated", said the SP.

Sources said relation between the two tribal leaders soured over the months after Ngursangthang Hmar was replaced by Rongmei as the chairman of the Barak Valley Hill Tribal Development Council earlier this year.

District administration and police took up adequate security measures in the Christian Hmar and Hindu Rongmei Naga hamlets in the southern Assam areas fearing distrust and communal tension after the Rongmei murder.

Three suspected tribal militants had raided the house of Rongmei at 8 am on July 10 and shot him on his head from close range killing him on the spot. Babute Rongmei (22), brother-in-law of Babul Ronmei was injured in the attack.