World News - assam

29
Aug
2012
7:53am, EDT
Biju Boro / AFP - Getty Images
Anguish follows riots in Assam, India
A woman cries near the remains of her house after it was burnt by rioters in Kharabari Charak Math, a village in the Barpeta district of Assam, north-eastern India on August 29, 2012.
Unidentified assailants killed one person and burnt down five houses after members of the All Assam Minority Students Union who had been taking part in a rally clashed with local youths, India Today reported.
The Associated Press reported last week that at least 80 people had been killed and 400,000 displaced in several weeks of clashes in Assam between ethnic Bodo people and Muslim settlers, the worst violence seen in the region since the mid-1990s.

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Explore related topics: human-rights, india, violence, south-asia, riot, world-news, assam
29
Jun
2012
8:17am, EDT
India floods displace more than 850,000
Biju Boro / AFP - Getty Images
A mahout moves an elephant to higher ground as villagers paddle with their belongings through flood waters in the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, some 55 km from Guwahati, the capital city of Assam, India on June 28, 2012.
Raging floodwaters fed by monsoon rains have inundated more than 2,000 villages in northeast India, sweeping away homes and forcing more than 850,000 people to flee their homes.
Floodwaters have submerged 90 per cent of a wildlife sanctuary in Assam, forcing rhinos and other wild animals to shelter in the woodland of the park which is located at a higher altitude.
-- The Associated Press and Agence France Presse contributed to this report
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EPA
Wild Asiatic water buffalo run to take shelter on high ground inside the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in the flood-affected Morigaon district of Assam on June 28, 2012. The sanctuary has been underwater for two days.
Anupam Nath / AP
A man pauses before making his way through flood waters at Burhaburhi village, about 40 miles east of Guwahati on June 29, 2012.

12 comments
That would be so cool to have an elephant
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Explore related topics: india, flood, south-asia, environment, world-news, assam, monsoon
1
May
2012
8:12am, EDT
100 still missing after India ferry disaster
EPA
Villagers along with Border Security Force (BSF) personnel engaged in a rescue operation for a capsized ferry at the Brahmaputra River in Bura-Buri village in Goalpara district in Assam, India, on May 1, 2012.
The Associated Press reports — Army divers and rescue workers pulled 103 bodies out of a river after a packed ferry capsized in heavy winds and rain in remote northeast India, an official said Tuesday.

At least 100 people were still missing Tuesday after the ferry carrying about 350 people broke into two pieces late Monday, said Pritam Saikia, the district magistrate of Goalpara district.

Deep sea divers and disaster rescue soldiers worked through the night to pull bodies from the Brahmaputra River in Assam state. Rescue operations were centered around the tiny village of Buraburi near the India-Bangladesh border. Read the full story.
EPA
Divers and rescue workers stepped up the search for survivors on Tuesday, May 1, 2012. The double-decked ferry was carrying approximately 300 passengers when it capsized during a storm in the western district of Dhubri on Monday evening. Some 100 people swam to safety or were rescued.
EPA
A villager watches the rescue operation from the top of a banana tree on the bank of the Brahmaputra River.
Biju Boro / AFP - Getty Images
Relatives mourn alongside the bodies of victims of the ferry disaster on May 1, 2012. Indian authorities said that some bodies might have been washed downstream into Bangladesh.

1 comment
Ever seen an Indian ferry? This one was probably designed to hold 50 or so but had 300 on board. Same this with their buses and trains..........amazingly overloaded then there is an accident and many are killed. Very sad.
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Explore related topics: india, south-asia, ferry, world-news, assam
30
Apr
2012
12:45pm, EDT
At least 103 dead after ferry capsizes in Indian state of Assam
Utpal Baruah / Reuters
Onlookers and rescue workers look at a ferry which was brought ashore after it sank on the Brahmaputra river in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
An overloaded double-decked ferry carrying mostly farmers and their families capsized in the Dhubri district of the northeastern Indian state of Assam on Monday, killing at least 103 people, police said.
About 100 people were rescued from the ship carrying about 300 passengers, which sank during a storm in the Brahmaputra River, Assam police chief Jayanta Narayan Choudhury told Reuters.
Reports on the number of dead and missing varied immediately after the accident.
People were sitting on the roof of the ferry when it tipped over in a storm in a remote region of the state, close to China and Bangladesh, police said.

"Our rescue efforts have been hampered by bad weather, it is still raining heavily and there is almost zero visibility in the area," P.C. Saloi, a police officer at the scene, told Reuters. Rescue operations were called off late at night and were set to begin again at sun up.
Eyewitnesses told police the vessel was old and broke in two after capsizing in the swollen river, one of Asia's largest. Smaller boats often get into trouble on the river, but the ferry was the largest to sink in recent years.
Reuters
Map of the ferry sinking in India
"I could see people being swept away as the river current was very strong," a witness, Rahul Karmakar, told AFP.

The boat was overloaded with people and sacks of rice, among other goods, and carried no lifeboats or life jackets, the police officer told Reuters..
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who represents Assam in the upper house of parliament, said he was "shocked and grieved" by the accident.
Rescue workers said they had contacted colleagues downstream in Bangladesh to help in the search for survivors.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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194 comments
I hope you people above feel superior. How pathetic of you! The only reason you did not have to get on an Indian ferry today is because of the place you were born. Give gratitude. Offer sympathy to those less fortunate.
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Anguish follows riots in Assam, India