Sonia behind seer's arrest: Singhal

     Jaipur: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) president Ashok Singhal today courted arrest in Jaipur to protest the arrest of the country's top seer on charges of murdering a temple official and a near fatal attack on a devotee. Jayendra Saraswati, who heads a highly revered monastery in Kanchipuram town in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, was arrested two weeks ago on charges of murder, abetment and conspiracy to murder in a case that has shocked the predominantly Hindu country. The VHP has led agitations and given shutdown calls across the nation in protest against the arrest. Singhal accused Congress party president Sonia Gandhi of hatching a conspiracy against the pontiff to malign his image. "This is a conspiracy of the Christians and Sonia Gandhi to take Jayalalitha's seat. She has been forced to take such a step and arrest Kanchi Sankaracharya. This country has tarnished the clean image of a great seer. Those who did this should be thrown out of the country," Singhal told reporters after his arrest. Hundreds of activists also courted arrest with their leader.

Sopore encounter ends, militants killed  (Go To Top)

     Srinagar: Security forces shot dead both militants in Sopore area of Jammu and Kashmir's Baramullah District more than 24 hours after the gun battle began. One of the ultras was shot dead during the early hours on Saturday, a CRPF spokesman said, adding that an operation was on to look for any more militants holed up in the camp. The ultras had stormed a joint camp of CRPF and local police killing five CRPF personnel on Friday. The Al Mansoorian militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Freed hostage wants to go back to Iraq (Go To Top)

     Ludhiana: Sukhdev Singh, an Indian trucker, who was taken hostage by an Iraqi militant group and later released, says he wants to go back to the Middle East because of lack of job opportunities in India. Singh says his family is facing a severe financial crisis and he is not in a condition to meet his basic needs. A visibly depressed Singh alleged that despite being promised help from the government, he is still unemployed. "I want to go because there is a huge amount of loan on me. But, then there was an incident in which we had to come back. The government promised that they will provide me a job but still there is a no reply from them. Because of financial crisis and unemployment I want to go there. If the government will offer me a job, then I will not go. KGL promised me at that time to come anytime whenever we will be in a need," said Singh. Since his release, Singh has even worked as a labourer for a construction firm, but could not pay back his loan of one million rupees. Singh's huge family of nine people is also bearing the brunt of the poverty. "You know that we are poor people. We sent him after selling land. But after that also nothing has changed. We have a small area of land but there is a huge loan on us. We want to appeal the government to provide employment for him. If they don't give, he has to go," said Jaspal Kaur, Singh's mother.

Released NHPC engineer returns home (Go To Top)

     Patna: Abducted NHPC engineer Trilochan Mandal, who was released from captivity by his kidnappers on Friday, is now back home with his family in New Delhi. Abductors allowed Mandal to board a train near Kushinagar station in Uttar Pradesh to travel to Delhi. Union Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh expressed unawareness about any ransom paid by Mandal's relatives for his release. He instead claimed that the release was made possible because of the sustained efforts of the Special Task Force of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh police.

India marks Navy Day (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: India's three service chiefs paid homage at the country's war memorial India Gate on Saturday on the occasion of Navy Day. Navy chief Arun Prakash, Army chief N.C.Vij and Air Force chief S.Krishnaswamy paid floral tributes to Indian soldiers at the memorial dedicated to those martyred during the World War I. The navy is the smallest of India's defence forces, with 85,000 men compared to the 1.1 million strong army. It has one aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, formerly the British Royal Navy's HMS Hermes, among its fleet of 25 main battleships and 18 mostly Soviet submarines. India has said it would induct more warships into its navy and significantly set up naval cooperation with several neighbours, including Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Navy has also said it would soon begin training naval personnel and refitting ships from Sri Lanka and was holding talks for supplying military hardware and expertise to Myanmar. The Indian Navy, which has 19 warships on order in the country's dockyards, has plans to transfer a patrol boat to the Seychelles.

European radicals to launch jihad against US in Iraq (Go To Top)

     Islamabad: Radical Muslims in Europe are reportedly making a beeline for Iraq to launch a "jihad" against American-led occupation forces there.The trend has has sent alarm bells ringing among Europe's counter- terrorism officials as they fear that these youth will not only escalate the violence in Iraq, but also pose a major threat to continental Europe once they return from their 'jihadi' missions. "There are cases of young Muslims from Western Europe going to Iraq to receive military training and that is an unfortunate and negative trend," the EU counter-terrorism coordinator, Gijs de Vries was quoted as saying. Officials further acknowledge that Iraq's quick return to stability and normalcy is the only antidote for this trend. "It is one of the reasons why it is very important to help Iraq stabilise so that peace can return and these (training) camps can be dismantled," he added. "The belief that this is what religion wants from you to a sheer sense of seeking adventure was driving young Muslims from Europe to go to Iraq," he further added.