Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Sunday said the culprits involved in the Hyderabad blast, which killed 16 persons and left several injured, would be booked soon.
“We have got some materials there (at the blast site) and tests are being done in the forensic laboratory. Soon we will get the results and the culprits will be booked soon,” Shinde told newspersons here.
A 25-year-old woman died after being shot thrice by two bike-borne youths here Sunday night, police said. Both the attackers have been arrested.
According to a police official, the woman, identified as Pooja, resident of Bhajanpura in east Delhi, was standing near the Sarai Kale Khan inter-state bus terminal in south Delhi when she was shot. She was taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre where she died of her bullet injuries.
The two youths were apprehended by the people at the spot and handed over to police. They are said to be residents of Abu Fazal Enclave in Jamia Nagar.
Hyderabad, Feb 24 (ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today visited Dilsukh Nagar blast site in Hyderabad and some of the injured who are being treated at private hospitals at Malakpet area nearby.He enquired about the health condition of the injured from the duty doctors.
Suspected militants on Sunday night gunned down a sarpanch affiliated to ruling National Conference in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said. Javed Ahmed Wani was shot at and critically injured by the suspected militants inside his house in Kreeri area of Baramulla at around 7.40 pm, they said. Wani was rushed to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to injuries. No militant outfit immediately claimed responsibility for the killing.
Three people including a couple have been booked by the police for allegedly forcing a teenage girl to have sex with a male as repayment of a loan they had availed sometime ago.
The incident came to light following a complaint by the school administration to a local NGO which took the girl’s case to the police.
The father of the 16-year-old victim, studying in the eighth standard had taken a loan of Rs 50,000 sometime ago, the police said.
RSS today said that while Pakistan was abetting cross-border terrorism to harm India, China was seeking to ruin the country’s economy by flooding the markets with cheap products.
“While Pakistan adopted anti-India policies and openly challenged country’s sovereignty, China worked cunningly by launching an economic warfare in the subcontinent,” RSS chief Mohan Rao Bhagwat said.
“Pakistan Army brings terrorists to the border and they (terrorists) cut heads of Indian soldiers.
–Agencies
Son of a Samajwadi Party MLC was today arrested for allegedly misbehaving with a woman teacher of a private university here.
Abhinav Gupta was arrested from the gate of the university in Chinhat area, police said.
Gupta allegedly misbehaved with the woman after which an FIR was registered against him.
Gupta is the son of SP MLC Pramod Gupta.
–Agencies
The main opposition party in Jammu and Kashmir today said it would strongly oppose the passage of the proposed Police Bill in its present form, saying many provisions in it were “undemocratic and anti-people”.
“Peoples Democratic Party would strongly oppose passage of J-K Police Bill in the present form,” party president Mehbooba Mufti said in a statement here.
Mufti said police in the state needed drastic reforms but many provisions in the Bill were “undemocratic and anti-people”.
—Agencies
Investigators are believed to have obtained certain “clear clues” based on CCTV footage at the site of the twin blasts in Hyderabad and questioning of some jailed terror suspects here even as a letter purportedly written by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) claimed responsibility.
Sources said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while being briefed by state DGP V Dinesh Reddy here about the progress in the investigations so far was told certain “clear clues” were obtained based on footage of the CCTV cameras at the scene and also questioning of some terror suspects lodged in jails here.
Former Speaker and TDP Politburo member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu here on Sunday lashed out at the State government for disrupting a “peace rally” taken out by his party on the pretext of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s tour in the city.
In a statement, Ramakrishnudu stated that in the wake of hanging of Parliament House attack accused Afzal Guru recently, both the State and Union governments had failed to initiate adequate security measures and alert the people against the impending bomb blasts in spite of the Central Intelligence forces pre-warned the government.
TDP senior leader and Leader of Opposition in the Council Dadi Veerabhadra Rao has addressed a letter to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy demanding that the latter release ex gratia, which was in pending to the bomb blast victims.
State BJP president G Kishan Reddy said he received a threatening letter in the name of Lashkar-e-Thoiba on Sunday. In the alleged letter, Lashker-e-Thoiba warned that they would even attack Begum Bazaar. It claimed that they had triggered blasts in Dilsuknagar the other day.
Speaking to the media here on Sunday, Kishan Reddy said the letter might be the handiwork of mischievous elements. But, as a precautionary measure, he lodged a complaint with the Abids Police and handed over tthe letter to the Police. The Abids Police has registered a case and began inquiring.
SC, ST, BC, Muslim Front has demanded that the State government impose restrictions on the electronic and print media for guessing that only Muslim youth might be behind the twin bomb blasts at Dilsukhnagar on February 21. It appealed to the government to ensure all services and payment of ex gratia for every injured and bereaved families of the deceased.
Six of the injured in Thursday’s terror attacks in Hyderabad remained critical, hospital sources said.
Three injured each at Care Hospital and Yashoda Hospital are battling for life with critical injuries.
The twin bomb blasts at crowded Dilsukhnagar area in the city Thursday evening claimed 16 lives and left 117 wounded.
According to officials, 90 people were still undergoing treatment at six different hospitals. At the Care Hospital in Nampally, three out of 23 injured are in critical condition.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Sunday urged people to reduce their electricity consumption if they cannot afford high power bills.
“If any family feels that electricity bill is out of their income (limit) and can’t bear it, then use one bulb instead of two. In place of two fans or coolers use one,” Dikshit said here at a political rally.
The chief minister also said consumers should not expect low power bills if their usage was high.
“If you use electricity for 24 hours, you will not pay the bill only for five hours,” she said.
A former judge who headed a bench that awarded death sentence to four for the killing of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi said on Sunday that the convicts should not be hanged.
KT Thomas said that since Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan had spent 22 years in prison, hanging them now would amount to punishing them twice for the same crime.
The three men are lodged at the Vellore jail in Tamil Nadu.
Iran has tested unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) including suicide drones, Xinhua reported.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force tested different asymmetric tactics and UAVs during military drills in the country’s east, it quoted Fars news agency as saying.
The IRGC started a three-day military drill, code-named Great Prophet 8, Saturday.
The decision by Pakistani religious scholars not to attend a conference of Afghan and Pakistani Ulema here in March has all but scuttled the meeting, reports Xinhua.
The chief of Pakistani clerics, Mufti Abu Huraira, informed the Afghan Ulema council last week that it will boycott the conference, saying it was being used as an attempt to target the Taliban.
Another Pakistani religious leader, Tahir Ashrafi, has also announced he would not attend the conference because it might be used to issue a “fatwa” or religious decree against the Taliban.
The probe into the Hyderabad terror attack gathered further momentum Sunday with police picking up some suspects and National Investigation Agency (NIA) teams fanning to various places to gather clues.
A special investigation team of Cyberabad police picked up Mohammed Raeesuddin, a resident of Chandrayangutta area of the old city of Hyderabad, for questioning. He was arrested by police after 2007 blast at Mecca Masjid but was later acquitted by a court.
Lending a healing touch to victims of terror attacks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday visited the scenes of twin blasts here and also called on the injured.
Three days after the terrorists struck crowded Dilsukhnagar area, killing 16 people, the prime minister went around the sites and took stock of the situation.
Manmohan Singh, who flew into Hyderabad in an Indian Air Force aircraft, also met the injured at two hospitals. He spoke to them and enquired from the doctors about their condition.
Sydney, Feb 24 (ANI): The MRF Pace Foundation is the ground zero for the world”s emerging young pace men, and according to its chief coach, Myluahanan Senthilnathan, if a quick can be taught the art of fast bowling at the academy then he can succeed just about anywhere. For 25 years young fast bowlers have came to be trained under the facility”s long-time director and co-founder, Dennis Lillee, and who are continuing to be drawn by his successor, Glenn McGrath, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Sydney, Feb 24 (ANI): India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored a magnificent double hundred on day three of the Chennai Test against Australia to put the hosts in a comfortable position with a hefty lead of 135 runs. Australia’s brave decision to field four pace men was also brutally exposed after Dhoni bludgeoned the attack to leave the tourists” first Test hopes in disarray, News.com.au reports.
Bhopal, Feb. 24 (ANI): Minister of State (MoS) for Human Resource Development (HRD), Shashi Tharoor on Sunday raised concern over women education, safety and empowerment and emphasised on the need to change the mentality of people in order to bring a positive change in the country.
Tharoor was speaking here in a conference on ‘women empowerment’, organised by a private educational institution.
Varanasi, Feb. 24 (ANI): Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Sunday said that a strong anti-terror body like National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) is required fight against effectively and bring such activities to an end.
Talking to reporters here at a press conference, Jaiswal said that the Center had much earlier, during the UPA-I, when he was Minister of State for Home Affairs, decided to constitute NCTC, but due to some state governments and political parties it didn’t get passed.
Chennai, Feb. 24 (ANI): Former Supreme Court judge Justice (retired) K. T. Thomas, who had awarded the death penalty to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins in 1999, on Sunday said it will be unconstitutional to hang them now after they had spent such a long period of time in prison.
Urging President Pranab Mukherjee to review their mercy petitions, Thomas said: “ Since the three convicts (Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan) have already spent 22 years in prison, hanging them now would amount to punishing them twice for the same crime.