| Police
take back Lalgarh from Maoists Lalgarh:
Security forces in West Bengal’s West Midnapore on Saturday declared to have
regained control over the troubled Lalgarh area. According to Director General
Of Police, Midnapore, Praveen Kumar, they have regained control of Lalgarh, which
was captured by Maoist rebels in one of the most brazen attacks in recent years.
“For 36 hours at a stretch they were at the basic minimum. The task was difficult
but it has been achieved but it is not the only job that we are here for. The
main job is that the authority of state, authority of the administration and the
confidence of the people has to be restored in the rule of law,” said Praveen
Kumar. Earlier, hundreds of Maoists, who were expanding their influence across
the country, had chased away police and killed government supporters from around
Lalgarh, which they declared a "liberated zone". Marching behind an anti-landmine
vehicle, hundreds of police in flak jackets and combat gear had entered the town
of Lalgarh. Operation Lalgarh
recaptured the Lalgarh police station amidst stiff gun battle and land mine blasts
by the Maoist ultras. The security men celebrated as the police station fell in
their way, which was out of bound for nearly six months after an attempt on life
of the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and two other union ministers in
last November. Around 50 villages in and around Lalgarh were controlled and declared
as "free zone" by the Maoist guerrillas. The paramilitary forces, which started
their march from the Bhimpur base camp entered Lalgarh through the Jhitkar forests,
which was believed to be the stronghold of the red brigade. According to the Superintendet
of Police Humanyun Kabir, security men came under heavy firing from Maoists at
the between Pingboni-Sarenga, the forces were obstructed by a human wall created
by women in Pingboni. Men from CRPF, BSF, State Armed Police, Eastern Frontier
Rifles and the Kolkata Police besides the elite anti-Naxal force COBRA were involved
in the operation. Ousting the Naxals from the area was not an easy task for the
forces as Maoists blocked roads and using land mines blew up the bridges. In an
immediate reaction Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said he will give a
serious thought to ban the Maoist organisations from his state. Intruding
US aircraft was carrying medicines, not weapons: IAF Top New
Delhi: After a thorough interrogation and search Indian authorities confirmed
that the military cargo aircraft, which has landed in Mumbai air port yesterday
was carrying medicines to the US troops operating in Afghanistan and no weapons
or ammunition were on board said IAF spokesperson Wg Cdr Tarun Kumar Singha. Wg
Cdr Singha said the aircraft was hired by the US military, from a Russian agency.
All the 18 persons including the crewmembers who were in the aircraft were civilians
and belonged to the Russian agency. The hired military cargo aircraft violated
the Indian air space near Gujarat yesterday and was forced to land at Mumbai's
Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport . The aircraft was travelling from Diego
Garcia island, a military base of the US near Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, to
Kandahar in Afghanistan . Wg Cdr Singha said that according to norms any hired
civilian aircrafts for the military purposes has to get an AOR clearance form
the IAF on this case the Russian agency did not obtain the clearance, the Mumbai
ATR instructed the captain to land the aircraft. He denied the report of IAF planes
escorting the intruded aircraft and said the pilot followed the instruction given
by the ATR, so the question of escort does not arise. The Indian authorities have
given the clearance to the aircraft to fly. Harish
Khare to be new media adviser to Prime Minister Top New
Delhi: Distinguished journalist and political commentator Harish Khare will
be the Media Adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He replaces Deepak Sandhu,
who was appointed to the post last year after the then Media Adviser, Sanjaya
Baru, took up a teaching assignment in Singapore. Deepak Sandhu has been shifted
to the Central Information Commission as its member. Khare (62) is presently Senior
Associate Editor of The Hindu, and is expected to take over next week. He also
worked as Resident Editor of the Times of India, Ahmedabad. He also worked for
the Hindustan Times from 1981 to 1985. In his capacity as the media adviser to
the prime minister, Khare will hold the rank of a secretary to the Government
of India. Khare is a seasoned journalist, who has made his mark in Indian journalism
because of his incisive comments on politics and administration. He has a PhD
in Political Science from Yale University and has enjoyed an illustrious career
in journalism for over 35 years. Security
agency buildings, hotels under terror threat in Lahore Top Lahore:
The Lahore Commissioner, Khusro Pervaiz, has warned that the militants could target
some strategically important buildings in the city. Pervaiz said that the terrorists
are on the look out for the right opportunity to carry out terror strikes on the
offices of law-enforcement agencies and top hotels located here. According to
The Daily Times, the Lahore CCPO, Pervaiz Rathore, in his letter to Pervaiz, has
warned that militants may trigger attacks more powerful and devastating than those
that have occurred in the recent past. The militants could target important buildings
such as the IB headquarters, Central Police Office, Special Branch offices, CID
offices, Police Investigation Headquarters, NADRA and passport offices, Rathore
feared. Following the increased threat perception, Lahore police have been asked
to beef up security at the Pearl Continental and Avari hotels, as they are also
in the terror hit-list. 'Hurt'
Gordon Brown says he can resign at any moment Top London:
Britain's embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he is not interested
in power, and could walk away from Downing Street at any moment. Brown, who survived
a backbench plot to oust him earlier this month, said: "To be honest, you could
walk away from all of this tomorrow. "I'm not interested in what accompanies being
in power. It wouldn't worry me if I never returned to any of those places - Downing
Street, Chequers. That would not worry me at all. And it would probably be good
for my children," Sky News quoted him, as saying. In an unusually frank interview
with The Guardian, the "hurt" Brown admitted he wished he was a better communicator
and claimed he was not very good at political manoeuvring. He said that it had
been a "revelation" to him at university that politics was "less about ideals
and more about manoeuvres", adding: "I don't actually think I am very good at
it at all." He hinted that he might be drawn towards teaching - a "great profession"
- as a post Downing Street career. His comments follow the smeargate controversy
in which one of his closest aides Damian McBride was forced to resign for suggesting
spreading unfounded claims about Tory MPs. Brown was also accused of practicing
"macho politics" when his cabinet minister Jane Kennedy resigned earlier this
month. "Look, find weaknesses in me, criticise me for my weaknesses - I'm not
as great a presenter of information or communicator as I would like to be. But
the one thing people should not say is that I'm surrounded by some group of conspirators,"
he insisted. He, however, distanced himself from McBride, claiming he had never
been aware of his reputation for sending abusive text messages to journalists.
|
