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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Mahato arrested, Maoists call Indiawide shutdown 3 October

Lalgarh, Kolkata, 26 September : Posing as journalists, police sneaked in on Chhattradhar Mahato the media-savvy tribal leader, Saturday, prompting the Maoists to call a nationwide shutdown 0n 3 October.
Mahato, leader of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), was nabbed from Birka near the headquarters of Lalgarh block in West Midnapore district, Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Surajit Kar Purakayastha told Bengal Newz.
Following the arrests, irate Maoists tried to trigger a landmine blast in the Kantapahari area. Later, Maoist leader Kishanjee said their organisation has called a nationwide shutdown 3 October. Photo : ANI

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(L) A young girl Shreya Banerjee gestures as she is being worshipped as 'Kumari', (a young girl portraying the goddess Durga), in front of a clay idol of Durga during the 'Mahashtomi' ritual of the Durga Puja festival at Belur in Howrah district.
(R) Mothers perform rituals in front of their daughters dressed as 'Kumari', during the Durga Puja festival in Siliguri.
Durga Puja, the annual festival that involves worship of the Goddess Durga, who symbolizes power and the triumph of good over evil in Hindu mythology, culminates in the immersion of the idols in bodies of water. Photos : Reuters and Sanjit Mitra
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Lalgarh's tribal leader Chatrodhar Mahato arrested
Kolkata, 26 September : The media-savvy tribal leader Chhatradhar Mahato, spearheading an agitation since November last year against alleged police atrocities at Lalgarh in West Midnapore district, was arrested on Saturday.
Mahato, the leader of People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), was arrested from Birka near Lalgarh when he was preparing to give an interview to a journalist, who was trailed by the police, a top police official said. The tribal leader, who had been giving regular interviews to local television news channels when the anti-Maoist operations by central para-military forces and the state police at Lalgarh began on 19 June, had gone underground shortly afterwards.
The tribals under Mahato had demanded that the then Superintendent of Police Rajesh Singh should appear before them and apologise for the "atrocities" committed by the police. Photo : ANI

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Bomb-like object found at Sylhet and Dhaka Banani Puja venues
Sylhet, 26 September : Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Saturday recovered a bomb-like object during a search at a Durga Puja pavilion at Naiorpul in Sylhet city. The officials found the object covered with red plastic under the dais. The incident created panic among the devotees, but RAB bomb experts confirmed it was not a bomb. "It was planted just to create panic," said RAB-9 wing commander Syed Anagh. He said security would be beefed up in the area.
Dhaka, 26 September : The bomb-like object recovered on Friday night from a playground near a Durga Puja pavilion in Banani in Dhaka was not a bomb, police say, hours after RAB said they did retrieve a bomb.
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Shabana A. to inaugurate Dhaka painting exhibitions
Dhaka , 26 September : Bollywood actress and social activist Shabana Azmi will inaugurate a painting exhibition of a noted Bangladeshi artist here.
The actress will arrive here tomorrow on a two-day visit. "She (Azmi) will open a fortnight-long painting exhibition of Shahabuddin Ahmed on Sunday at the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts,"said a spokesman of the gallery. The exhibition titled "Joy Bangla" (long live Bangladesh) will showcase the collection of some rare paintings by Shahabuddin Ahmed based on the 1971's Bangladesh Liberation War.
Ahmed, who also fought the war of country's independence, has been living in Paris for the past three decades. Photo : Nashirul Islam

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Indian cricket team invited for 2010 South Asian Games in Dhaka
PTI, Mumbai , 26 September : The Indian under-21 cricket team has been invited to take part in the 11th South Asian Games at Dhaka, in which the Twenty20 format has been introduced, early next year.
The invitation to the Cricket Board to send the under-21 squad for the multi-discipline event, scheduled from 29 January to 9 February, 2010, has been forwarded by the Indian Olympic Association, according to informed sources. The South Asia Olympic Council has introduced cricket as one of the 22 disciplines in the SAG, IOA secretary-general Randhir Singh has informed the Board.

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Bangladesh's role in establishing global peace lauded
New York, Dhaka, 26 September : World leaders have hailed role of Bangladesh in identifying the risks and the way out of global warming as well as in establishing peace across the globe.
The appreciation came when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended bilateral meetings with prime ministers of Sri Lanka and Kenya, and secretaries general of Commonwealth and OIC on Friday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Session 2009. During the bilateral talks at the UN booths, Sheikh Hasina discussed various issues and matters of development. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayke described Sheikh Hasina’s plans and programmes as wise and visionary in the process of attaining the Bangladesh people’s long-cherished wellbeing and prosperity. He mentioned the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Peace Accord signed during the last Awami League government that had been successful in reinstating peace in the hill districts.
Sheikh Hasina was also hailed for her role in making the world community beware about the dire impacts of the global climate change and providing guidance for finding out the solutions to protect people from natural disasters.

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Gloomy Durga puja in cyclone-hit WB's Sundarbans
Gosaba (Sundarbans), 26 September : With most of the people doing petty jobs in cities to run families back home, a pall of gloom has descended in cyclone-ravaged Sundarbans deltas before Durga puja.
Durga puja has been a low-key affair in the deltas this year after cyclone Aila destroyed the livelihood of the 4 million residents of Sundarbans deltas driving bread winners to cities. Thousands of people, mostly working men, toiling as construction workers, gardeners or daily-wage labourers in the cities, are likely to miss puja festivities this year. "The sadness that surrounds the day of Durga idol immersion is evident everywhere in Sundarbans before the pujas," MP of Jaynagar Lok Sabha constituency in Sundarbans, Tarun Mondal told Bengal Newz.
"More than 40 per cent of residents have left their homes to work in Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
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One more Left wing extremist killed in Kushtia town
UNB, Kushtia, 26 September : A top-ranking extremist was killed in a shootout during a joint operation of RAB and police early on Saturday in Doulatpur in the suburb of Kushtia town.
Mohon (42), member of the banned Purbo Bangla Communist Party (ML) 'red flag', was the 19th victim of the ongoing crackdown against outlawed extremists in the country's south and south-western districts. Squad commander of RAB-12 Kushtia unit Flight Lt Nazrul Islam said, "Acting on a tip-off that a gang of terrorists had assembled for a secret meeting near Trimohoni Bazar in Lalnagar village under Doulatpur Upazila, a RAB contingent raided the spot at around 3:15am.(BDST).
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