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Saturday, October 24, 2009

Joint Forces, Maoists exchange heavy fire in Lalgarh belt

Lalgarh , Kolkata, 24 October : Days after their daring raid on a police station, the Maoist rebels triggered three landmine blasts and engaged the security forces in a heavy exchange of fire in Lalgarh belt Saturday evening.
The troopers opened fire at the suspected extreme ultras near the Kantapahari forest area under the Lalgarh police station, The gun battle continued for almost 20 minutes. No injury has been reported so far in the firing, West Midnapore district magistrate N.S. Nigam told Bengal Newz. He also said the ultras also triggered three landmine blasts near Baropelia in the district. The Maoist opened fire at the joint forces when they were carrying out patrol in the area.
Maoists are active in areas covered by 21 police stations in the state's three western districts West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. File Photo PTI
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Swap with Maoists an exception, won't be a policy, says Buddhadeb
ANI, New Delhi, 24 October : West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Saturday that the exchange of Tribals women for a policeman was an exception and will not be a policy of his government. Denying allegations of withdrawing forces from the operational areas in the Lalgarh region Bhattacharjee said: "We asked the police to halt the operation for a couple of hours to complete the rescue procedures. It was just a few hours ceasefire."
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India bag six gold medals in Dhaka Asian Archery GP
Kolkata girl Dola Banerjee bagged the women recurve individual gold
PTI, Kolkata, 24 October : Indian archers bagged six gold, two silver and three bronze medals to reign supreme in the Dhaka leg of the Asian Grand Prix today.
Ruling the roost, India clinched top spots in all the categories, apart from the women's compound section, according to the Archery Association of India. In the men's recurve section, Athens Olympian Tarundeep Rai returned to form clinching the individual gold. The recurve trio of Rai, Pawan Xalxo and Kapil then earned India the second gold.
Veteran two-time Olympian Kolkata girl Dola Banerjee bagged the women's recurve individual gold before helping the team to earn the fourth yellow metal.

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After V Raje, BJP removes West Bengal unit chief
PTI, New Delhi, 24 October : The West Bengal BJP chief had to step down today for poor performance of the party in the Lok Sabha polls, a day after Vasundhara Raje bowed to pressure from the central leadership and quit as Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan assembly.
West Bengal BJP President Satyabrata Mukherjee resigned from his post to abide with the party decision to remove all unit heads in states where the party had performed badly in the Lok Sabha polls, party sources said. His resignation was accepted by Rajnath Singh. Mukherjee has been replaced by Rahul Sinha, who was nominated as the West Bengal state unit president of the party by Singh today.
However, the party leadership maintains that new state unit presidents are being appointed as country-wide organisational elections are on to elect office-bearers from block level upwards.

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All Bank accounts of "Hizb ut-Tahrir" to be frozen
Dhaka, 24 October : The Bangladesh government on Saturday ordered the official concerned to freeze the bank accounts of the banned organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh.
It also ordered to put a block on the website of the organisation, private television ATN Bangla reports. Earlier, on 22 October, the government banned all kinds of activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Islamist political party founded in Jerusalem in 1953. The party started its activities in Bangladesh in 2000.
According to Hizb ut-Tahrir's website
www.khilafat.org, Mohiuddin Ahmed is the chief coordinator and spokesman of the party and its central office is located at HM Siddique Mansion, 55/A Purana Paltan, 4th Floor, Dhaka.
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Centre approves Rs 53 crore to modernise WB police
Kolkata, 24 October : The Centre has approved Rs 53 crore to the West Bengal government for modernising its police force and upgrading the infrastructure.
Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen, who was in Delhi to attend a meeting convened by the Union Home Secretary early this week, today said the centre and the state will spend the amount for this in 75:25 ratio. Of the amount, Rs 15 to Rs 20 crore had already been sanctioned for inducting bullet proof cars, mine-proof vehicles and sophisticated arms and ammunition among other gadgets. Construction of modern police barracks would also be taken up. The work would start immediately, Sen told Bengal Newz today.
The Centre has also assured the state of a fund worth Rs six crore for upgrading infrastructure in police stations hit by left wing extremism, he said.

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BCL-Shibir clash : Chittagong Medical College closed
Chittagong, 24 October : Chittagong Medical College was closed for an indefinite period after a pitched battle between Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) on Saturday that left 20 people injured.
The college authorities, at an emergency meeting this afternoon, took the decision and also asked the male students to vacate their two hostels by 8:00pm tonight while the female students have to leave their lone hostels by 8:00am tomorrow, STAR Chittagong correspondent reports.
Earlier, the medical college campus, Chakbazar, Gulzar area and Parade Corner turned into a battle ground following the clash between the activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), student wing of ruling Awami League, and Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, over establishing supremacy on the campus. Photos : Zobaer Hossain Sikder

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Suspected Maoists torch houses of CPI(M) leaders
Midnapore, 24 October : Suspected Maoists today set ablaze houses of two CPI(M) leaders at Kaldanga village under Goaltore police station in troubled West Midnapore district.
There was, however, no casualty, police said. Meanwhile, ten people were injured in an armed clash between activists of the CPI(M) and those of the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine at Kadambia village in Goaltore area during the day. Four injured persons were admitted to the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital.
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First ever women contingent of BSF deployed on Indo-B'desh border
ANI, Haridaspur BOP, 24 October : The first ever women contingent of the Border Security Force (BSF) has been deployed along the India-Bangladesh border in Malda districts.
These women BSF constables are not only trained and deployed along the Indo-Bangladesh, but Indo-Pak borders as well. The first batch comprises of 108 women from Punjab and another 46 from West Bengal. The South-Bengal Frontier, which overlooks 50.52 kilometres within its area of responsibility (AOR) along Indo-Bangladesh border, has problems like cross-border smuggling of drugs, arms and ammunition and cattle, alongside alleged trafficking in women. BSF was in dire need of women personnel as it was impossible to detain women for physical checks which otherwise would have been deemed as violation of human rights.
BSF had long felt the need for women personnel and now that an armed women’s wing has been raised and deployed, it is hoped that use of women for possible cross-border illegal activities would be curtailed significantly. Photo : AFP
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Death toll in Bangladesh's trawler capsizal rises to 13
Xinhua, Dhaka, 24 October : With seven more bodies recovered Saturday in Bangladesh's Padma River, the death toll of trawler capsizal on Friday in Faridpur district, 101 km southwest of capital Dhaka, rose to 13.
UNB reported eight people are still missing after the sand-laden trawler which carrying 42 laborers sank Friday morning when it was hit by another trawler. Six bodies were recovered Friday evening. Abdul Alim, a survivor, said around 20 of the laborers sleeping on the deck and roof of the trawler were able to swim to safety.
Administrative chief of the district Helaluddin was quoted as saying they would continue rescue operations.
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Mitsubishi Chemical Co. plans to triple Its Revenue
Haldia, 24 October : The Indian arm of Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Corp, MCCPTA India Corp, has disclosed that it will be increasing its revenues threefold to stand at Rs.5,000 crore from the current Rs.1,600 core by 2010-11.
“We are planning to treble the revenue to Rs.5,000 crore ($1.2 billion), taking into account the current market price of PTA (purified terephthalic acid) at $900 per tonne," Yoshi Mitsu Kobayashi, president of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp, told reporters. He was addressing the media after the inauguration of the Haldia unit Phase II, which has enabled the production capacity to be increased by 800,000 tonnes. Currently the Haldia plant has a production capacity of 470,000 tonnes.
The Haldia facility is the company's largest single-line production capacity unit globally, churning out 1.27 million tonnes of PTA per annum.
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