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                        Vol.4, No.60 [*] September 13, 1999
                        -----------------------------------

                 They have sown the wind, and they shall
                           reap the whirlwind.
                              - Hosea: 8:7
   -------------------------------------------------------------------

1  HOME MINISTRY ALERTS ASSAM ON ISLAMIC DESIGNS         [S:11-SEP-99]
   ---------------------------------------------
   SILCHAR:  After ISI, the Union Home Ministry, in its latest message
   to the Assam Government, has alerted it against a band  of  Tabliqs
   (teaching   groups   on   religion)  who  have  been  sent  by  the
   Karachi-based International Islamic University (IIU) to  Assam  and
   other frontier states of the country to influence the Muslim voters
   in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
   
   The   Home  Ministry's  alert  is  based  on  Intelligence  reports
   monitoring trans-border sources. Campaign of Tabliqs in  motivating
   the  voters  is  more  effective than the fatwas of Imams. The main
   objective of IIU in despatching  the  activists  of  fundamentalist
   groups is to tilt the balance in the Parliament by sending at least
   50 people's representative of their choice who can `play the second
   fiddle' to Pakistan according to the need of the hour.
    
2  HIZBUL MUJAHIDEEN ENTER KARIMGANJ                     [S:13-SEP-99]
   ---------------------------------
   KARIMGANJ:   A  13-member  group  of  militants has entered through
   Champabati border of Patakhandi circle on September 2.    According
   to  local  people,  the  armed group belonged to Hizbul Muzahideen.
   The militants kept explosive material hidden in a  strategic  spot.
   Reports said that terrorist organizations from Bangladesh have been
   trying to enter through border areas in Karimganj.
   
   To  keep  a  close  watch  on  the  Indo-Bangladesh  border  during
   elections, a blue print had already been made by the police and the
   security forces.   But it is questioned whether it will be possible
   for the 24 Border  Security  Force  (BSF)  outposts  to  guard  the
   92-km-long (including 41-km water) border.

3  INSURGENTS HOLD THE KEY TO STATE ELECTIONS          [UNI:12-SEP-99]
   ------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   Having no issue, the elections in Assam where voting is
   likely to be in the national  pattern,  insurgents  hold  the  key.
   Although National Democratic Front (NDFB) has eased the pressure by
   announcing non-interference, the banned ULFA has vowed to make it a
   bloody election.
   
   The Congress might be insulated from these threats as their support
   base  has  no  connection with both the militant organizations, but
   the BJP is more worried than even the AGP which is the  main  enemy
   of the  ULFA.  
   
   `We appeal the ULFA not to disrupt the poll process because in that
   case  it  is seen that the non-Congress votes only get affected and
   now non-Congress votes means BJP only, not the AGP.  We  are  badly
   affected  in the last election,' said Mr Narayan Barkataki, the BJP
   State president.

   `More than the BJP it was us  who  suffered  the  most,'  said  AGP
   vice-president  Biraj  Kumar  Sharma who himself was shot at by the
   militants. The AGP was routed  in  the  last  Lok  Sabha  elections
   drawing blank in the State it is in power.
   
   The ULFA however, has not openly announced boycott of the election.
   First they had said they would support those who would raise  their
   demand in  the  floor of Parliament.  Now they hint at attacking on
   individual leadership rather than hitting  the  junior  leaders  to
   create panic.
   
   The  Army  has  pressed into service air surveillance through MI-17
   helicopters besides setting up a motorcycle-borne assault  team  on
   the ground.    `We  know that they will like to make their presence
   felt  by  disrupting  the  polls',  said  4  Corps   GOC   Lt   Gen
   D.B.Shekatkar referring to the ULFA's hit-and-run plan tactics.
   
4  BANGLA PROTESTS BORDER INCIDENTS                    [AFP:11-SEP-99]
   --------------------------------
   DHAKA: Bangladesh has lodged a protest with India over a series  of
   border  disputes  during  recent  months, saying Dhaka was `gravely
   concerned' about the situation, reports said.
   
   Indian  Envoy  to  Dhaka  Hamid Ali Rao was summoned to the Foreign
   Ministry on September 10 and told Bangladesh was `gravely concerned
   to observe that a series of incidents during the past months  along
   the  India-Bangladesh  border  have  contributed to the undesirable
   buildup of tension in the border  areas,'  the  official  BSS  news
   agency quoted a Foreign Ministry officials as saying.
   
5  CENTRE GRANTS RS.125 MILLION TO BODOLAND COUNCIL      [S:12-SEP-99]
   ------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   The  Centre  has  sanctioned  Rs.125  million  for  the
   development of the Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC), and allocated
   ten per cent of the 100,000 tube-wells sanctioned for the State, to
   be installed at the BAC areas for parallel agricultural development
   in the area.
   
   An official source said that Rs.15  million  had  been  exclusively
   earmarked  for  the  proposed  Central University at Kokrajhar. The
   money will be spent for construction of the  university  buildings,
   purchase  of instruments and equipments, and for development of the
   university library.
   
   The rest of the central aid will be spent on various  developmental
   works  in  the  BAC  areas  like  construction  of  the  stadia  at
   Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar and Gossaingaon, repairing of the main roads,
   construction of a hospital and purchase of necessary equipments.
    
______________________________[Mozz-BG]_________________________________
Compiled from newspaper and agency reports for private circulation only.
      [S=Sentinel, AT=Assam Tribune, Agencies = UNI, PTI, PIB]
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