With the Government of Bhutan threatening to initiate military action to flush out Indian militants holed up in the Himalayan kingdom, Maoist rebels of Nepal have extended an invitation to the Indian outfits, including the United Liberation Front Asom (ULFA), the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), to set up camps in their territory in Nepal, intelligence sources in Bhutan said. The ULFA, in return, would have to train Maoist cadres, the sources said.

"Maithunam paramam tatvam

Shrusti stithi, anya karanam,"

(Coitus is the ultimate principle behind

creation, preservation and destruction)

- Lord Shiva in the Kailas Puraan

Supply of essential commodities to the Upper Assam districts and Mokokchung, Tuensang, Mon and Dimapur in Nagaland is mostly controlled by traders of the Jorhat wholesale market. "There is enough stocks to last two weeks, but Hindi speaking truck drivers are not willing to come to Upper Assam," said Duli Chand Agarwalla, general secretary, Upper Assam Chambers of Commerce. "The shortage of Bihari labourers has compounded the situation." At least seven buses of Bihari labourers left the Upper Assam towns in a Bihar-bound bus yesterday.

Two suspected United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants were killed in an encounter with the army in Dhola in Tinsukia district in upper Assam. According to the Tinsukia police, the encounter took place when the army was conducting a regular combing operation. Dhola had witnessed some of the worst incidents of violence against members of the Bihari community.

As talk of a showdown between the Bhutanese government and north-eastern insurgent groups operating from its soil intensifies, there are reports of increased activity among the gunrunners of Siliguri in West Bengal. According to intelligence sources, the area has become a hub for gunrunners, with active support from China, and the Maoist militants of Nepal, and involves local politicians and former militants of the Naxalbari movement. "China is particularly targetting Siliguri given its proximity to Nepal, Bhutan and the North-east," the sources said.

The 17th - 18th January 2004 has been chosen to celebrate
Magh Bihu.The harvest festival together.

Overseas Assamese are today spread over - 110 countries across the world.And
as enterpreneus
workers,teachers,researchers,inventors,doctors,lawyers,engineers,managers
and administrator and serving their host countries with distinction.However
this has not detracted from their engagement with Assam which continues to
be substantive and varied.

The events will address the following objectives :

1) To engage with all the Assamese living outside Assam to understand their

The upcoming " Prabasi Asomiya Sanmilan" to be held in Guwahati in January next year brings the subject to the forefront once more. However, many of us who might have had interest in participating are asking: In what ways can I be of assistance? What can I contribute? There has been talk of expectations from the Assam political establishment, time-to-time, about NRA (Non-resident Assamese) INVESTMENTS in Assam, like the Andhra expatriates, or Gujarat expatriates and so forth. This particular expectation however, has been a definite discouragement.

Firstly, should Assamese expatriates consider returning to Assam with their money and invest into the future of what was once their native land? And secondly, why do the Assamese Diaspora, ambitiously called NRA (Non-resident Assamese), work better and shine in a country, say for example, the USA?

At least 14 suspected militants of the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) have been killed in factional clashes in the Chittagong Hills Tract (CHT) of Bangladesh, according to intelligence sources here. Meanwhile, in another development, the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), an organisation of the indigenous communities of the CHT, has threatened Dhaka with an indefinite strike from January 15 if atrocities by the United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF), a militant outfit of the local Bengalis were not stopped immediately.

I am just putting forward a humble experience of mine. I advised and suggested to my friend in Philadelphia to initiate work on such a line. It has now materialised in an LLC as well as a proposed monthly magazine to be published both in english and assamese both from the USA and Assam simulataneously.
The mazine has been named in Assamese as - "Prabashar Prithibi" and in English as -- " Small world".

On his last visit to India in last October/2003, Mr Vavani Prasad Sarmah formally announced the launching of the magazine in a news conference.

Boxed in by an increasingly anxious Indian government that is keen to see an end to foreign support to north-eastern militant movements on the one hand, and the militants who are lodged in the jungles of the Himalayan kingdom on the other, the Bhutanese government has been at pains lately to explain the toll that a possible attack on the militants could take on its own population, especially in a situation where there are growing fears within the kingdom of the Bhutanese being gradually outnumbered by the immigrant Nepali, or Lhotshampas ("southern Bhutanese"), from Nepal, Darjeeling and Sikki

Indo-Bhutan joint massive army operation has been launched at the shelter camps of
ULFA along Indo-Bhutan border since the wee hour of December 15, 2003 that we term
as a totally illegal one.

Instead of a peaceful resolution of ongoing Indo-Assam conflict, India has still
pronouncing its abstinence on behalf of a military solution what is proved already
as a barren instrumentality.

We do here by request the Royal Government of Bhutan to recall the account of memoir
concerning the bilateral talks between His Majesty and The Chairman of ULFA and the

(a) The capture of the publicity secretary of an outfit, in this case, Mithinga Daimary, obviously cannot be seen as any kind of military success. Daimary obviously would no hold a military brief and his removal could not be expected to create a flutter in the rank and file of the outfit, unlike say in the case of the deputy commander in chief Hirokjyoti Mahanta in the early \\'90s. Daimary, unlike Swadhinata Phukan, the previous publicity secretary killed a few years ago, is not an ideologue. Apart from this they have reported the arrest of a 70 year old adviser, in itself a joke.

Simply pin pointing on others will not help the cause of the state. See other states, how they are progressing. We have abundant natural resources, talent and manpower.

Still we are fighting in the name of culture threats, language and threat to our survival. We should first propagate the great teachings of Jagat Guru Sankardev and also revive our understanding towards Satras and make feel the whole world that Assam is the second name to Non violence and prosperity.

In 1995, Jahnu Barua won international acclaim for his poignant movie Hkhagoroloi Bohu Door, which raised many pointed questions about the state and its society.

Now, the latest sensation of Assamese filmmaking, Shankar Borua, is ready with his answers through an experimental film titled Hkhagor Paluhi.

The central character of the film —Bakhar Barua — will be played by National School of Drama graduate Adil Hussain, who has been making waves in London as Othello in an adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece.