Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Saturday discussed with union Home Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, the arrest of Sayyed Liyaqat Shah, whom the Delhi Police has accused of planning a terror strike in the national capital.
“The chief minister emphasized on getting the case thoroughly probed by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a time bound manner to establish the facts,” said an official spokesperson,
Five gunmen and two special forces officers were killed and six other officers were injured in Russia’s volatile Dagestan region, officials said.
Police said the gunmen had been holed up in a house in Semender village since Wednesday.
A counterterrorism operation began after security forces entered the village to search for a suspected member of an illegal armed group.
On March 9, two gunmen were shot dead when a group of unidentified attackers opened fire at police in Mutsaul in Dagestan.
A delegation from the UAE’s Federal National Council (FNC) is taking part in the 128th session of the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Ecuador.
The UAE team is headed by FNC Deputy Speaker Amal Abdullah Al Qubaisi.
Ecuador President Rafael Correa stressed in his opening speech the importance of adopting democracy as the ideal form of governance.
He also referred to the key role played by parliaments in achieving people’s aspirations and voicing their issues to their governments.
–_IANS
Top Maoist leader Sudershan was Saturday arrested in Andhra Pradesh’s Khammam district bordering Chhattisgarh, police said.
Sudershan alias Sriramulu Srinivas, a member of the central committee of the Communist Party of India-Maoist, was arrested near Vyra in Khammam district.
A key figure of Andhra-Orissa Border committee of CPI-Maoist, he was carrying Rs.20 lakh reward on his head.
Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, Sudershan is a key accused in the assassination bid on then chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in 2003 at Alipiri near Tirupati.
A teenager was stabbed to death by two of his friends after he molested the sister of one of the accused, police said Saturday.
Akash, 17, was stabbed near his house Friday evening by two other teenagers from his locality in Mangolpuri in north Delhi, said a police officer.
The boy was taken to a hospital but declared brought dead.
The two attackers have been arrested and sent them to a juvenile home.
Akash had molested a sister of one of the teens and in a fit to rage, they stabbed him, said the police officer.
–IANS
The UAE has lifted a ban on importing beef from Italy.
The UAE’s Minister of Environment and Water Rashid Ahmed bin Fahd issued a resolution lifting the ban that was imposed after mad cow disease spread across Europe.
According to the resolution, every shipment of beef from Italy must have a valid and accredited veterinary certificate, a certificate of origin and a halal slaughtering certificate by an Islamic centre accredited by the UAE’s ministry of environment and water.
—IANS
Afghan police backed by army and NATO-led forces have killed 46 Taliban militants in operations across the country, the interior ministry said.
The operations took place in Kunduz, Badakhshan, Kandahar, Zabul, Maidan Wardak, Ghazni, Khost and Paktiya provinces, Xinhua cited a ministry statement as saying.
One Taliban man was wounded and 26 were arrested, it said.
However, the statement did not say if there were any casualties among security forces.
–_IANS
At least five soldiers were killed in a suicide attack Saturday night on an army check-post in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region, an army statement said.
The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), the mouthpiece of the Pakistan military, said that a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the check-post in Miran Shah, the capital of North Waziristan.
The check-post was destroyed in the attack, Xinhua cited the statement as saying.
Other media reports said six people were killed and 18 were wounded.
No group has taken responsibility for the attack.
—IANS
Eleven foreign prisoners escaped from a jail in Greece during an exchange of fire with guards, Greek authorities said.
The incident which took place Friday night at the Trikala prison left two prison guards injured, Xinhua reported.
Police said the 11 foreign nationals, convicted for robberies, were missing after a standoff with the passengers of two trucks who attacked the prison entrance with automatic weapons.
This was the third incident in a Greek prison in a month.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today spoke to Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and demanded that the case of arrest of an alleged Hizbul Mujahdeen terrorist by Delhi Police be transferred to NIA for a “time bound speedy probe”.
The Chief Minister took up the matter with Shinde over phone as the latter was away in Maharashtra with President Pranab Mukherjee.
“I have spoken to him and asked for a speedy and time bound probe by the NIA to establish the facts in this case,” Omar told PTI here.
Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt’s sister and Congress MP Priya Dutt Saturday thanked all those who had expressing their solidarity and support to her brother after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction under the Arms Act and sentenced him to a five year jail term.
“I would like to thank the entire film industry, prominent personalities and most of all the people of India for their overwhelming gestures of love and support shown towards Sanjay and our family,” Priya Dutt said in a statement.
“It is in your lowest moment that we can truly know your friends,” she said.
At least 62 Myanmar refugees have been killed and over 200 injured when a fire swept through their camp in northern Thailand, with officials fearing that the toll could rise further.
Earlier, 30 refugees were reported killed when a fire broke out last evening at the Mae Surin refugee camp in Mae Hong Son province.
32 more bodies were found in the burnt camp and the death toll could rise further, chief of the Mae Hong Son Public Health Office Paisarn Thanyawinitchakul said.
The national capital observed Earth Hour by switching off lights at India Gate, Qutab Minar, Humayun’s Tomb, the historic Red Fort, Central Park in Connaught Place and many other buildings at 8.30 p.m. Saturday.
Around 1,000 people gathered at Central Park in Connaught Place at an event organised by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWFN).
“This year’s Earth Hour is not only about saving power but it is also about promoting renewable sources of energy,” said Rituparna Gosh from WWFN.
Singer Rekha Bhardwaj performed at the venue.
At least five people, four of them security guards, were injured when protesting students turned violent outside the Vice Chancellor’s office at the Aligarh Muslim University here Saturday evening.
The students were agitating for the past few days in support of their demand for reduction in minimum attendance percentage.
A student and four varsity security guards were injured in the violence, a university spokesman said adding the protesters indulged in brick-batting.
Government is committed to providing 4.5 precent job reservation to backward Muslims and trying to expedite the matter pending before the Supreme Court, Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan said on Saturday.
Addressing National Editors’s Conference here, Khan said the reservation for backward Muslims was a promise made by Congress in its election manifesto.
“We had said in our manifesto that we will provide reservation to backward Muslims as per the Karnataka and Kerala mode of quota within quota. In both the states, it has been upheld by the courts.
Social activist Anna Hazare on Saturday said it was wrong to presume that the CBI acts of its own volition and alleged that Congress had always “misused” the central investigating agency.
Asked about the CBI raid on DMK leader M K Stalin’s residence immediately after the party withdrew its support to the UPA government, Hazare told reporters, “Everybody knows that the CBI is under government’s control. If it is brought under the Lokpal’s control, it would help in curbing corruption.”
A decision on possible hike in passenger fares will be taken by the Railways in October when it will review the fuel adjustment component (FAC) in the wake of rising fuel and energy cost.
While the freight rate will go up by about 5.7 percent from April 1 due to the linking of FAC in the freight tariff, railways will examine its applicability in the passenger services in October this year.
“There is a policy now and the FAC is linked with energy and fuel prices and calculated accordingly,” Railway Board Chairman Vinay Mittal said at a conference here.
Two persons were arrested here after a shootout in east Delhi today, police said.
The incident took place near Maharaja Agrasen College.
Two constables were on motorcycle patrol when they found as many youths on two bikes in suspicious condition, police
said.
When they intercept them, the youths – identified as Ahesan and Riyaz – fired at police.
In the retaliatory action, a bullet hit Ahesan’s left leg.
The duo was overpowered by the constables,” a police official said.
—————PTI
A Trinamool Congress worker was called out of his house and shot dead at Kadaghata under Chakdaha Police Station in Nadia district today, police sources said.
The assailants fired twice at TMC worker, Praladh Roy, with one of the bullets hitting him, the sources said.
He was rushed to Chakdaha State General Hospital and was declared brought dead, they said.
The police arrested two persons, ASP, Nadia, Arindam Dutta Chowdhury said.
CPIM District Secretary Sumit De claimed that the arrested persons Amit Chakraborty and Hari Narayan Moitra were
TMC workers.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said that a Comptroller and General (CAG) report has stated that Gujarat made maximum progress in fighting malnutrition in the last five years.
According to a CAG report, Gujarat has made maximum progress in fighting malnutrition in the last five years,”
Modi said while conferring awards to anganwadi workers and women sportspersons at a function here.
He said that while India on an average made 8 per cent progress in the last five years in tackling the menace of
A Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supported independent MLA from Kalchini in Jalpaiguri district Wilson Champramary today joined the ruling Trinamool Congress as an associate member.
Wilson Champramary joined the TMC as associate member along with 50,000 of his supporters in the Terrai and Dooars
to expedite development and ensure peace in the area,” TMC General Secretary Mukul Roy said at the party headquarters
here.
Elected as an independent MLA in 2011 Champramary met TMC chief and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the state
seceratariat seeking her approval to join the TMC.
Odisha assembly was today stalled over alleged involvement of an ex-minister and a senior IPS officer in separate dowry torture cases and frequent crimes against women with opposition Congress MLAs storming well leading to repeated adjournments.
Though question hour passed off peacefully, Congress members raised the issue as soon as zero hour began. They
stormed into the well and tried to climb the Speaker’s podium demanding a statement from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
With the arrest of three boys all aged around 15 years, the police today claimed to have cracked the case of gang-rape of a minor girl about three weeks ago in Kalimela area of Odisha’s Malkangiri district.
The three boys, identified as Biswajit Mistry, Jayant Haldar and Arjun Sarkar of MV-33 village, were arrested last
evening for allegedly gang-raping the class VII girl from MV-29 village on March 2, sub-divisional police officer
Malkangiri, K Siva Subraminiam said today.
Two poachers were arrested and 10 kg raw wild boar meat seized from them, Bhitarkanika National Park authorities in Kendrapara district said today.
The duo, Panchanan Mandal and Banamali Das, confessed that the gang used to trap and kill wild boar deer species at regular intervals, forest officials said.
A district court here today awarded life sentence to two persons in a four year-old murder case in Bihar’s Banka district.
Fast Track court judge P R Mishra found the two persons guilty in murder of Anil Mandal in 2009 and sentenced
them to life imprisonment.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each on the two.
The killing due to old enmity occurred in a village under Shambhuganj police station of the district.
————–PTI