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Militants slit throats of engineer, brother

          Pulwama (J-K): Suspected militants on Friday killed a railway engineer and his brother by slitting their throats after holding them hostage for two days. Sudhir Kumar, working with railway firm IRCON, his brother and two other men were abducted by gunmen while travelling in a car on Wednesday in Pulwama district, south of Srinagar. Police accused militants of the abduction and killing but said the motive was not clear. No militant group has claimed responsibility. The two Muslim men kidnapped along with Kumar and his brother were released unharmed later on Wednesday. Kumar and his brother were Hindu. "We condemn this act. This is an act against humanity and this is injustice to the people of Kashmir. Where people want to move forward through development, such people are committing such acts to stop this. The engineers who was working here for the state was killed without any reason. Those who committed this crime are on the wrong side of the law," said Tourism Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir.

Dacoits loot train in Gaya   (Go To Top)

          Gaya: One person was seriously injured when unidentified miscreants robbed passengers of an express train in Gaya district of Bihar on Thursday. The dacoity was committed by a group of young men armed with pistols and knives in an upper class coach. One of them, who boarded the Bombay-Hawrah express from the Bhabhua station, pulled the chain and stopped the train as soon as it left the station to let other gang members come in. Eye witnesses said the assailants beat up passengers including women before taking away all the valuables. "At around 1.30 p.m. they started beating up people including women. They snatched money, mobiles and luggage of all sitting in the coach," Ashok Kumar said. The angry passengers demanded that the Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav should quit as robberies on trains in Bihar have been on the rise. Yadav hails from Bihar. "The way we see in movies how dacoits enter the train, the same way they committed the crime, they had knives and revolvers in their hands. If such things keep happening then either Laloo Prasad Yadav should resign or else guards should be present on all air-conditioned coaches," Rajendra Kumar, a passenger said. Meanwhile, Yadav said he had ordered action against the security guards in the train. "As we got the information, we ordered that those guards present in the coaches at the time of the robbery should be suspended," Yadav told reporters in Patna. The incident is the third reported from Bihar ever since Yadav took over as the Railways Minister in May. Train robberies have been on the rise in several parts of the country, especially in Bihar, as policing is poor in sections ruled by hooligans and armed gangs.

Cong Rajya Sabha nominations rejected again (Go To Top)

          Lucknow: The nomination papers of the two Congress candidates in Rajya Sabha elections in UP were rejected on Friday after they were scrutinised again. The returning officer RP Pandey, who was asked by the Election Commission on June 21 to consider afresh the rejected nominations of Harendra Agarwal and MM Shukla, stood by his earlier decision. After scrutiny on Thursday and Friday when he heard arguments of the two Congress nominees and other candidates, Pandey observed that there was no need to reconsider his earlier decision. Meanwhile, the Congress has said that it would appeal to the Election Commission to countermand the Rajya Sabha polls and issue a fresh notification for biennial elections for 11 seats from Uttar Pradesh. Their decision came after the returning officer for Rajya Sabha election in the state rejected again the papers of two Congress nominees. UPCC president Jagdambika Pal said, "We will appeal to the Election Commission citing the partial attitude of the returning officer, who is clearly under pressure from the state government."

CBI carries out nationwide raids (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) on Friday carried out nationwide raids at 74 places and registered 389 cases against 50 people, out of whom 30 are government servants. The details were disclosed by CBI Director U S Misra at a press conference here. Misra said disproportionate assets case has been registered against seven government servants belonging to UTI, Central Excise, Income tax, Cement Corporation of India, BSNL and insurance and customs. "In these cases cash valuables and securities worth Rs 28.72 lakh have been seized and movable and immovable properties worth Rs 7.43 crore detected," Misra said.

Governors appointed by NDA Govt asked to quit (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The new UPA government is understood to have asked some of the governors appointed by the previous NDA government to quit their posts. Sources said that the political appointees in Raj Bhavans like Vishnu Kant Shastri in Uttar Pradesh, Madan Lal Khurana in Rajasthan and Babu Parmanand in Haryana were being informally told to put in their papers so that the odium of being removed could be avoided. On Thursday, NN Jha, Lt Governor of Pondicherry, quit his post citing change in the government at the Centre. While Shastri and Khurana are from the RSS school and were active BJP leaders when they were appointed to the gubernatorial posts, Parmanand had come into controversy before elections when he spoke in praise of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at an official function.

Six Haryana Cong MLAs disqualified (Go To Top)

          Chandigarh: Six members of the Haryana Assembly who recently joined the Congress were today disqualified under the anti-defection law. Speaker Satbir Singh Kadian disqualified Karan Singh Dalal, Jagjit Singh Sangwan, who had won as RPI and NCP nominees, respectively, Rajinder Singh Bisla, Dev Raj Dewan, Bhim Sein Mehta and JP Gupta, elected as independents, on a petition filed by ruling INLD MLA Jasbir Singh Malour. Their disqualification would have a bearing on Monday's Rajya Sabha elections for the two seats from the state in which Ajay Chautala, a son of Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala, was set for a comfortable win while Congress' Kiran Chaudhary and independent Tarlochan Singh, Chairman of National Minorities Commission, were precariously placed. The Speaker did not accept the plea of the legislators that they had split their parties and then merged with Congress and announced their disqualification as members of the Assembly.