Canada's Canoro Resources has signed an agreement with India's parastatal Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) to explore for crude in the jungles of Nagaland, a state in the country's remote northeast, where large swaths of territory have been controlled by separatist guerillas for decades. Nagaland Industry & Commerce Minister Khekhiho Zhimomi said the predominantly Christian state of two million has the potential to yield some 600 million tons of crude. "Nagaland is literally sitting on a multi-million dollar oil reserve," Zhimomi said. Exploration work undertaken by ONGC in 1994 was suspended following threats from the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM). This time Zhimomi says things will be different: "We have the full support of the local people this time while executing the agreement with the ONGC. We hope there should be no problems now."

India's Maoists guerillas threatened more attacks March 26, 11 days after they killed 55 police and tribal militia in a raid on their camp in the central state of Chhattisgarh. The two-page statement signed by "Azad" called the attack a "heroic and tactical counter-offensive by the Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army against state-sponsored reign of terror." The statement pledged "bigger" attacks if the Salwa Judum (Campaign for Peace) movement was not stopped. The government-sponsored movement is recruiting local tribespeople as informants. Tens of thousands have also been forcibly relocated from their villages into army-controlled camps in an effort to isolate the populace from the Maoists. "The guerrillas assisted by the Bhoomkal militia will take up attacks on bigger scale if the Salwa Judum campaign is not withdrawn," the statement said. Bhoomkal means "land army" in a local tribal language, and is the name of the Maoists' own armed network among the populace. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said last year the Maoist revolt was the biggest internal security challenge facing India since independence in 1947. (Reuters, March 26)

The Tamil Tiger rebels launched their first air strike March 26, hitting a Sri Lankan air base near Colombo. They Defense Ministry said three airmen were killed and 16 wounded, but the military's newly-purchased MIG fighter jets were not damaged. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the raid, carried out with two planes, was aimed at interrupting the "indiscriminative bombing of the Tamil areas" by the Sri Lankan government. LTTE guerillas attacked the same base in 2001, destroying half of the Sri Lankan fleet. (Asia News, March 26) In India P. Nedumaran, leader of the Tamilar Desiya Iyakkam of Tamil Nadu, said the LTTE air attack has brought "endless joy and happiness to Tamils all over the world." (Asian Tribune) Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's pro-government LankaWeb cites claims on the Counterterrorism Blog that the LTTE sold stolen Norwegian passports to al-Qaeda operatives. Writes Counterterrorism Blog's self-appointed "expert" Aaron Mannes:

Police in Nepal are searching sugarcane fields in the southeast for bodies after clashes between Maoists and the Madhesi People's Rights Forum left at least 27 dead. The clash in the town of Gaur, on the Indian border, was the deadliest this year. Gaur and neighboring Kalaiya were both placed under curfew. At least 58 have been killed since January in protests by Madhesi activists seeking more government jobs and parliament seats for their people, who live in the Terai region bordering India.

As Bangladesh prepares to hang six militants convicted in a string of bombings, a newly "interrogated" member of the network claims some 5,000 followers of outlawed Islamist groups are still active in the country, and receiving aid from supporters abroad, including Saudi Arabia and the United States. Mostafizur Rahman Shahin, detained in the northern district of Pabna March 14, confessed to being a senior member of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, led by Shayek Abdur Rahman.

Continuing protests over the suspension of the chief justice, thousands of opposition activsts and lawyers rallied in major cities across Pakistan and clashed with police, demanding President Pervez Musharraf's resignation. In Islamabad, around 1,000 protesters staged an angry rally outside the Supreme Court building. The former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Hamid Gul, took part in protests in front of the national Parliament. Police and paramilitary troops have been deployed in large numbers in and around the Parliament and Supreme Court buildings, and emegrency orders against further public gatherings are in effect.

Dozens of police in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh were killed when their forest outpost was raided by Maoist [Naxalite] rebels March 14. Fighting has intensified between leftist insurgents and police and paramilitary forces in vast swathes of central India. Over 50,000 people have been displaced by ongoing violence.

Police are seeking 10 men, including several tribal elders, accused of pressuring a Pakistani woman to hand over her teenage daughter as payment for a 16-year-old poker debt. Nooran Umrani of Hyderabad says that, despite paying off her late husband's debt of $165, she was threatened with harm if she failed to hand over her daughter, Rasheeda, 17. (AP, Feb. 27)