န Suspected Maoists gun down 3 Cops in Bankura

Panic spread after attack. Shops shut, Road deserted
Sarenga(Bankura), 3 June : Maoists ambushed a police patrol when they were having lunch at Simlipal’s Piralgiri More on Wednesday, killing three in cold blood. Two constables are critically injured.

Police suspect the Maoists had kept a watch on the police team’s movements for some time. A 15-member attack squad came out of Jangalkhand on Wednesday, followed the patrol party to the hotel on Jhargram-Bankura Road and riddled them with bullets. “Eight to nine gunmen opened fire from behind, without uttering a word,” said Lakshmirani Mandi, who works at the hotel.
ASI Biswanath Bera and constables Bishnupada Saha and Gopal Dey died on the spot. The Maoists then moved to the parked van, where constable Nripendranath Das and NVF’s Balaram Maity sat petrified. The duo tried to put up a fight but were outnumbered and shot in the head. They are at Bankura Hospital. The attackers fled with an SLR, three .303 rifles and a revolver. “They had some motorcycles hidden among the trees, said hotel owner Kalachand Das. Police suspect the motive for the attack was to loot weapons. Another reason could be that the Sarenga police have repeatedly raided nearby villages in search of Maoists in the past few months.
Panic spread after the attack. Shops shut and the road was deserted for the rest of the day. Bankura SP Vishal Garg is leading the hunt for the attackers, who fled to the jungles in Simlipal or Belpahari or towards Khatra. န Photos : Niraj Modi

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PDS leader Saifuddin Chowdhury meets Buddhadeb

Kolkata, 3 June : Saifuddin Chowdhury, leader of the Party for Democratic Socialism (PDS), met chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers' Buildings on Wednesday. The meeting taking place nine years after his expulsion from CPI(M) has fuelled speculation about Chowdhury's return to the party.
During the polls, Bhattacharjee had said he was trying to bring Chowdhury and Somnath Chatterjee back. "I told him (Bhattacharjee) that West Bengal is facing a crisis. He agreed and told me to think what I have done and added that life is short," said Chowdhury. "He said relief distribution in the Sunderbans was a problem because of transportation and people's weakness," Chowdhury said.
Taking a dig at his former ally, Trinamool Congress, he said: "Which big party is with the Centre, who is running the state are not the issues to be raised now. The Centre should accept whatever demands the state has placed."

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Bangladesh 'Parliament TV' may be on air soon

Dhaka, 3 June : A proposed new TV channel to air all parliamentary proceedings live has been approved for launch, said Bangladesh speaker Abdul Hamid on Wednesday. "The proposal has been approved by the parliament commission," Hamid told reporters after the commission met. "Anyone, including private TV channels, will be able to record parliamentary footage from the channel," said Hamid.
The Bangladesh parliament secretariat made the proposal as private TV stations are not allowed in to the building to film. The speaker said the new channel would have terrestrial facilities so that all people across the country could view parliament live. He said the state-run BTV would provide technical support to launch the new channel. "We will start the process as soon as possible," he said.
Hamid presided over the commission meeting attended by prime minister Sheikh Hasina, ministers and a representative from the main opposition BNP. The parliament commission approves all spending by parliament.