India rebel group says army killed leaders in Myanmar strikes
Some rebel groups in northeastern India have ethnic, linguistic and cultural ties with minorities across the border in Myanmar and maintain a presence there.
A top commander of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) was killed and 19 others wounded in a drone attack in Myanmar near the border, the separatist group said in a series of statements.
'Two more senior commanders were killed' in subsequent strikes, the ULFA said, adding: 'Several other members and civilians were also wounded.'
India's Maoist rebels say ready to talk if crackdown paused
Indian authorities have yet to confirm the strikes.
Camps belonging to another rebel group, the People's Liberation Army, were also targeted, the ULFA added.
The ULFA is one of several insurgent groups in India, and wants independence for the northeastern state of Assam, while the PLA advocates for the secession of Manipur state.
One faction of the ULFA laid down arms and signed a peace deal with the Indian government in 2023.
Rebel attacks have drastically reduced in recent years but the insurgent violence has killed thousands of people, mostly civilians, over the last three decades.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
3 hours ago
- Express Tribune
India acquits 12 in deadly 2006 train blasts case
An Indian court acquitted on Monday 12 men previously convicted for a series of bomb blasts that ripped through packed commuter trains in Mumbai in 2006 that killed 187 people. The men were convicted in 2015 of murder, conspiracy, and waging war against the country over the attacks during the evening rush hour of July 11, 2006 that also injured more than 800 people. Five were sentenced to death, while the other seven were given life imprisonment. But, 10 years later, the Bombay High Court set aside a lower court's verdict and acquitted the 12 men. Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak said in their judgement, the prosecution had "utterly failed to establish the offence beyond the reasonable doubt against the accused on each count". The men were ordered to be released from jail "if they are not required to be detained in any other case".
Express Tribune
3 hours ago
- Express Tribune
India seeks to recalibrate China ties
United States President Donald Trump's lunch meeting with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir prompted a private diplomatic protest from India in a warning to Washington about risks to their bilateral ties while New Delhi is recalibrating relations with China as a hedge, officials and analysts said. The meeting and other tensions in the US-India relationship, after decades of flourishing ties, have cast a shadow in trade negotiations, they said, as Trump's administration weighs tariffs against one of its major partners in the Indo-Pacific. India blames Pakistan, especially the military establishment, for supporting what it alleges is cross-border terrorism and has told the US it is sending the wrong signals by wooing Field Marshal Munir, three senior Indian government officials directly aware of the matter told Reuters. It has created a sore spot that will hamper relations going forward, they said. US-India ties have strengthened in the past two decades despite minor hiccups, at least partly because both countries seek to counter China. The current problems are different, said Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based senior fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation think tank. "The frequency and intensity with which the US is engaging with Pakistan, and seemingly not taking Indian concerns into account, especially after India's recent conflict with Pakistan, has contributed to a bit of a bilateral malaise. "The concern this time around is that one of the triggers for broader tensions, that being Trump's unpredictability, is extending into the trade realm with his approach to tariffs," he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office and India's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The foreign ministry has previously said that it had "taken note" of the Trump-Munir meeting. A US official said they do not comment on private diplomatic communications and that the US enjoys strong relationships with both India and Pakistan. "These relationships stand on their own merits, and we do not compare our bilateral relationships with one another," the US official said. The US seems to have taken a different tack on Pakistan after a brief conflict broke out between the nuclear-armed rivals in May when India launched strikes on what it called terrorist targets across the border in response to a deadly attack on tourists in IIOJK. A few weeks after the May fighting, Trump hosted Field Marshal Munir for lunch at the White House, a major boost in ties with the country, which had largely languished under Trump's first term and Joe Biden. It was the first time a US president had hosted the head of Pakistan's army at the White House unaccompanied by senior Pakistani civilian officials. COAS Munir's meeting in the White House added to India's chagrin over Trump's repeated insistence that he averted nuclear war between the two nations by threatening to stop trade negotiations with them. The comment drew a sharp response from Modi, who told Trump that the ceasefire was achieved through talks between army commanders of the two nations, and not US mediation. In the days following his June 18 meeting with COAS Munir, people from Modi's office and India's national security adviser's office made separate calls to their US counterparts to register a protest, two of the officials said. The protest has not been previously reported. "We have communicated to the US our position on cross-border terrorism, which is a red line for us," said a senior Indian official. "These are difficult times Trump's inability to understand our concerns does create some wrinkle in ties," he added, seeking anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. Trump and COAS Munir discussed continuation of a counterterrorism collaboration, under which the US has previously provided weapons to Pakistan, a non-Nato US ally, and talked about ways to further strengthen ties, a readout of the meeting from the Inter-Services Public Relations said. That raised concern in New Delhi that any arms Pakistan receives from the US could be turned on India if the neighbours end up in conflict again, two of the officials said. Harder stance Despite what used to be public displays of bonhomie between Trump and Modi, India has been taking a slightly harder stance against the US in recent weeks, while trade discussions have also slowed, the Indian officials and an Indian industry lobbyist said. Modi declined an invitation from Trump to visit Washington after the G7 meeting in Canada in June. Earlier this month, New Delhi proposed retaliatory duties against the US at the World Trade Organisation, showing trade talks were not going as smoothly as they were before the India-Pakistan clashes. India, like other nations, is trying to figure out a way to deal with Trump and is recalibrating ties with China as a hedge, said Harsh Pant, foreign policy head at India's Observer Research Foundation think tank. "Certainly there is an outreach to China," he said. "And I think it is mutual China is also reaching out".
Express Tribune
3 hours ago
- Express Tribune
US officials blame Air India captain for crash
A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month supports the view that the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines, said a source briefed on US officials' early assessment of evidence. The first officer was at the controls of the Boeing 787 and asked the captain why he moved the fuel switches into a position that starved the engines of fuel and requested that he restore the fuel flow, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under investigation. The US assessment is not contained in a formal document, said the source, who emphasised the cause of the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, the capital of western Indian state of Gujarat that killed 260 people, remains under investigation. There was no cockpit video recording definitively showing which pilot flipped the switches, but the weight of evidence from the conversation points to the captain, according to the early assessment. Indian officials said investigation was ongoing and it remained too early to draw definitive conclusions. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash, said in a statement on Thursday that "certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting." The Wall Street Journal first reported similar information on Wednesday about the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade. After that the Federation of Indian Pilots sent a legal notice to Reuters about a July 17 story published by the news agency which referenced the WSJ article. A preliminary report released by the AAIB on Saturday said that one of the two pilots in the cockpit was heard on the voice recorder, asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so." The AAIB investigators did not identify which remarks were made by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and which by First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3,403 hours, respectively.
