Land of Jewels (Sana Leibak)

Heirok to study JK guidelines for SPOs: Imphal, May 18: Sticking to its earlier proposition that it would oppose utilisation/engagement of SPO personnel in counter insurgency operations, the JAC formed in the aftermath of the Heirok firing incident has asserted it would closely study contents of SPO guidelines prior to accepting actual setting up of SPOs in Heirok. Despite the renewed assertion of the JAC, the Government had set into motion recruitment exercises for enrolling 300 SPOs in Heirok village of Thoubal district. Plans are also afoot to recruit 200 SPOs for deployment/stationing at Lilong Chajing. It may be recalled that people of Heirok and Lilong Chajing had demanded weapons from the Government to protect themselves from unwanted elements following incidents of gun firing some months back that claimed the lives of four persons apart from injuring a teenage girl. "The SPOs will only protect Heirok and its surrounding villages from rebels' threat. We will, however st...

Manipur tops in number of casualties : Shillong: Manipur tops the list of insurgent related incidents and casualties in the past one year. The Union Home Ministry status paper on internal security situation spelt out 414 militancy related incidents in the Northeastern region, where 131 civilians lost their lives in the process, 171 extremist killed . In the past one year, there were 153 militancy related incidents in Manipur alone. 57 civilians lost their lives in Manipur and 64 extremists were gunned down, revealed the status paper. Altogether there were 153 incidents reported in which the security forces lost 39 men. In Nagaland, the number of insurgency incidents was reported as 67, in which 15 civilians and 10 extremist getting killed in the process. The paper reveals that during the same period, there is 152 incidents in Assam, out of which 55 civilians lost their lives and 35 extremists were killed. The security forces lost 7 men in the process in Assam. Tripura known for its vol...

Crime against fairer sex on rise: Guwahati: The country's Northeast region, considered the safest for women, is fast losing its reputation with rising incidence of crime against women. A study by the Rashtriya Gramin Vikash Nidhi, a centrally backed development support organisation, shows that crime against women in the region on the rise. Insurgency in the region has only aggravated the situation with women bearing the brunt. While in the year 2001, the cases of rape, kidnap and sexual harassment were 758, 1070 and 850 respectively, the number of rape cases has gone up to 1000 in 2006. The cases of torture by husbands that stood at 1248 in 2001 too have gone up to 1944 last year. In 2002 the number of rape cases was 903, 2003 the figure is 1049 while the record number was in 2005 when the number rose to 1217, the study shows. Similarly cases of sexual harassment has gone up from 850 to nearly 900 in 2005 while there were as many as 99 dowry deaths in 2005 and 67 last year. The fi...