န Congress Holds WB To Ransom : Siliguri, 17 July :

(R) People are seen through the broken windshield of a vehicle attacked by a mob during a 12-hour strike in Siliguri today.
(L) Congress supporters shout slogans as they drive past a burning tyre at a protest rally during a 12-hour strike in Siliguri. Supporters of India's ruling Congress party shut down West Bengal with a strike on Friday. န Photos : Reuters

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Brace for daylong disruption in road, rail & air traffic
Kolkata, 17 July : Life is going to come to a standstill on Friday. The bandh called by Congress and supported by Trinamool will give the city an extended weekend. After Thursday’s vandalism and violence, few private operators would like to hit the road. Even the government is in no mood to run its full fleet on Friday. With railway minister Mamata Banerjee supporting the bandh, train services are expected to come to a standstill. Several airlines have rescheduled flights from here.
“The Opposition is united now and the ruling coalition is on shaky ground. So, the bandh has no reason to be unsuccessful. Having felt the winds of change, even the bureaucracy and the police are in no mood to enforce an anti-bandh stance,” said Amiya Sengupta, a former senior government official and now a full-time political observer.
But after Thursday’s rampage, police are cautious on law and order. Some 5,000 additional policemen will be deployed on the roads. Besides, there will be 100 extra police pickets and another 100 extra heavy radio flying squads and radio flying squads. Police will also keep the combat force and anti-riot force ready to avert any untoward incident. န Photos : Sanjay Bhaduri & Sucheta Das (AP)

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န Bengali Culture All Over...

Dhaka, 17 July :

(R) Famous Bangali singer Shakila Jafar sings at the Citibank award-giving ceremony at the Radisson Water Garden Hotel in Dhaka on Friday. (L) Performers sing and dance at a cultural programme at Chhayanaut Auditorium in Dhaka to mark the 'Rabindra Utsob 1416' on Friday.

န Photos : Nashirul Islam and Firoz Ahmed

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Both Maoists & PCPA call 72hr bandh in 3 districts

Lalgarh, 17 July : Both the People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) and the Maoists have called bandhs one after the other. While the Maoist-backed PCPA has given a call for a 72-hour bandh in West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts from Sunday to protest the month-long operation and torture of innocent villagers at its core committee meeting near Lalgarh on Friday, CPI(Maoist) has called a bandh on 22 July, immediately after this strike ends in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal in protest against the price hike of petrol, potato and essential commodities.
"We saw police and CPI(M)-backed goons torture innocent people in the name of anti-Maoist operation for the past one month. They even heckled women. Many villagers have even been forced to leave villages. So, we have called a 72-hour bandh, demanding a stop to such torture and immediate withdrawal of security forces from the area," said PCPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato.

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Jamuna embankment spurs collapse at Bogra

Bogra, Dhaka, 17 July : A further 38-metre stretch of west Jamuna bank embankment's spurs collapsed on early on Friday at Chandanbaisha of Sariakandi upazila in Bogra, a WDB official said. On 4 July, 15 metres of that first spurs went under water .
Bogra Water Development Board executive engineer A K M Momtazur Rahman said they stacked sand bags to. Currently, water flow is lessening in Jamuna and it is blowing under danger line, Rahman added. န Photo : Aminul Islam Khan Rana

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Top Indian militant arrested in Dhaka

Dhaka, 17 July : One of the most wanted militants sought by Indian authorities was arrested in the Bangladesh capital after 14 years of hiding. The Detective Branch arrested Sheikh Obaidullah near Babubazar bridge in the evening, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner A K M Shahidul Haq at a press conference at DB office on Friday.
Haq said Obaidullah mainly encourages people to take to 'Jihadi' activities. He had advanced weapons training for one and a half months during the war in Afghanistan in 1990-91. He had gone to Pakistan and Afghanistan many times and fought against the Soviet army.
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Forces of anarchy active in West Bengal, says CPIM

Kolkata, 17 July : Facing criticism after an attack on eight Congress legislators in West Bengal, the ruling CPI(M) today alleged that “anarchist forces” have become active in the state, posing danger to democracy.
“Forces of anarchy and indiscipline are active. They are posing a danger to democracy,” CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose told reporters here. He said he had not received any report about the involvement of any party worker or leader in Wednesday’s violence in Mongolkote of Burdwan district, in which eight Congress legislators were injured. “But still I have said that if anybody of our party was involved, he will be punished,” he added.
The West Bengal unit of the Congress has called a 12-hour statewide shutdown Friday as one party supporter died and angry activists torched buses and obstructed rail and road traffic Thursday to protest the attack. န File Photo

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Internet bandwidth fees slashed for B'desh operators

Dhaka, 17 July : Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission announced Thursday the cost of internet bandwidth for operators will to be reduced by 33 percent, in a move designed to stimulate the telecommunications sector throughout the country.
The BTRC statement said public and private internet service providers will now pay Tk 18,000 per megabit/second to the state-run Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), rather than the current rate of Tk 27,000. Bangladesh Telecommunications Company (BTCL) reduced the price of internal backhaul from the landing station to Dhaka while the BSCCL also agreed to reduce their fees, said the statement. BTRC said the mobile phone companies and internet service providers have agreed to provide quality services at a reduced a rate from now on. BTRC chairman Zia Ahmed said the move would increase the number of internet users and improve internet speeds.
Bangladesh is connected with the SE-ME-W-4 submarine cable consortium. The allotted bandwidth is 24 gigabits, although current usage remains at around 8 gigabits.