In a letter to the Assam governor, retired lieutenant general Ajai Singh, the IFJ expressed great concern over the abduction and alleged death of journalist Indra Mohan Hakasam, a local correspondent from Goalpara, Assam, working for "Amar Asam", an Assamese daily published in the city of Guwahati. According to IFJ's information, Doleng Rava and Sanjib Rava, leaders of the United Liberation Force...
International PEN is concerned over the reported harassment and intimidation of journalist and human rights activist Lachit Bordoloi in Assam, India. PEN believes that Bordoloi, chairman of the Organization for the Struggle for Human Rights (MASS), has been targeted primarily for his coverage of police corruption in Nagaon District, Assam. PEN calls upon the authorities in Assam to guarantee his...
CPJ is deeply disturbed by reports that Naresh Kumar Kalita, news editor of the Assamese-language newspaper "Agradoot," is now being detained under the National Security Act (NSA), which allows for preventive detention without trial. **Updates IFEX alerts of 25 February and 11 February 1999; for background on the Ajit Bhuyan case see IFEX alerts of 3 March 1998 and 23 October 1997** The Kamrup...
CPJ is deeply concerned over the prolonged detention of Naresh Kumar Kalita, news editor of the Assamese language newspaper "Agradoot." On 25 February 1999, Guwahati's High Court rejected Kalita's bail petition for the second time in two weeks. Police arrested the journalist at his home in Guwahati in the early morning hours of 10 February. They searched the premises for about three hours before...
RSF is protesting the arrests of three senior journalists in the state of Assam. According to RSF's information, on 10 February 1999, Naresh Kalita, news editor of the vernacular daily "Agradoot", was arrested by the police on charges of aiding and abetting separatist militants. A police statement said that he was jailed after the confessions of a militant of the United Liberation Front of Assom...
RSF is expressing concern further to death threats received by two Assamese journalists. According to RSF's information, in its 23 October 1998 issue, the daily "Amar Asom" said that two senior journalists of the newspaper were threatened with death by a former separatist militant after they enquired about his involvement with the police in an attack on a local businessman. The article said that...
According to CPJ, on 18 July 1998, Assamese editor Ajit Kumar Bhuyan was assaulted by armed men. Bhuyan was threatened, his residence ransacked, and his family terrorized by the incident, which is the latest in a series of arrests and threats made against Bhuyan in recent years. Bhuyan, the editor of the Assamese-language weekly newspaper "Natun Samoy", was at home with his family in Guwahati on...
According to information released by RSF on 18 May 1998, Dhiren Chakravarty and Atanu Bhuyan, editor and executive editor respectively, of the Guwahati-based daily "Ajir Batori", were woken up and arrested at 3:00 a.m. (local time) on Friday 15 May, by Assam state policemen (in the northwestern state of Assam). They are charged with defaming Parliament and its members after the publication, on 21...
In late November 1997, the Advisory Committee, the local administrative body for the National Security Act (NSA), concluded that the grounds for detaining Ajit Bhuyan, former editor of the Assamese-language daily newspaper "Asomiya Protidin" and its sister paper, the Assamese-language weekly "Sadin", were not acceptable and ordered his release. Following this decision, the central government...
