This time it’s Lahore police academy: At least 3 terrorists captured alive

A group of gunmen, some in police uniforms, attacked a police academy today and held it for hours, seizing hostages, throwing grenades and killing at least 11 people before being overpowered by Pakistani commandos.

Six militants were arrested and eight died in the eight-hour battle to retake the compound on the outskirts of this city, said Rao Iftikhar, a top government official in Punjab province.

(Reuters quoted Interior Ministry Secretary Kamal Shah as saying that four terrorists were killed and three arrested. Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said the militants were believed to be fighters loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud who had come from the South Waziristan tribal region.The entire planning was done there, Malik told a news conference in Lahore. He said one of the men captured was an Afghan who arrived 15 days earlier and had rented a house there.) As the siege ended, black-clad Pakistani commandos fired their guns in the air in celebration at the top of the building, shouting “Allah ho Akbar”.

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Punjab minister Captain Kanwaljit dies in car crash

Senior Punjab Cabinet Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh was killed in a car accident on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana National Highway-95 in Kharar on Sunday evening. The four-time MLA’s driver Parminder Singh and Personal Security Officer (PSO) Rattan Singh sustained injuries in the mishap.

Capt Kanwaljit was sitting on the front seat with Parminder at the wheels and the PSO seated in the rear when the accident took place. While Capt Kanwaljit was declared dead at PGIMER late on Sunday, the condition of both his aides was re ported to be stable.

The accident took place around 5 pm when the Hyundai Elantra car in which the Minister for Cooperation, Defence Services Welfare, Removal of Grievances, Pensions and Welfare of Pensioners was returning from Ludhiana, collided head-on with a ten-tyred truck, coming from the opposite direction, Station House Officer (SHO) Sub-Inspector Dalbeer Singh told The Indian Express.

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LoC breach: Alerted, Army laid a trap for Lashkar men before 5-day firefight began

At the end of the five-day Kupwara encounter that killed eight Army personnel and 17 Lashkar operatives, all evidence points to “extremely sophisticated planning and logistics” behind the biggest infiltration attempt across the Line of Control this year, security officers involved in the operation said.

Army chief General Deepak Kapoor said the high casualties of Indian Special Forces — all eight from the crack 1 Para — indicated a “high level of military training.” As did the nature of the infiltration attempt—through treacherous terrain and the recovery of highly detailed maps of the forests, along with GPS devices, radios, satellite phones, snow boots and ice axes.

At 10,273 feet, a narrow, winding road over the Sadhna Pass — its surface covered by frozen ice — is the only entrance into the stunning valleys of Karnah in the Kashmir Valley.

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Same gang killed Jigisha, Soumya: cops

Delhi Police say that with the arrest of the killers of call centre executive Jigisha Ghosh, they have also solved the murder of TV journalist Soumya Viswanathan.

The men — three of them detained on Monday — are main accused Ravi Kapoor, Amit Kumar Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Vijay Kumar. The police are on the hunt for the fifth accused, Ajay Kumar.

Said Commissioner of Police Y S Dadwal: “The murders of both Jigisha Ghosh and Soumya Vishwanathan have been solved with the arrest of these men. Ajay Kumar is still on the run.”

The police said 28-year-old Ghosh, an operations manager with Hewitt Associates in Noida, was smothered to death by Ravi Kapoor in the early hours of March 18 after she was dropped off by the office car at her CPWD housing colony near the PVR Priya complex.

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Four Andhra techies killed in United States car crash

Four Indian IT students, including three girls, were killed and another was injured when an off-duty and apparently drunk policewoman crashed her car into their vehicle on a highway in the US State of Missouri early on Saturday.

The five, all from Andhra Pradesh and studying for MS degree in Information Technology in Eastern Illinois University, were returning home in a Honda Accord when the policewoman’s SUV , speeding in the wrong lane, hit them head-on in Des Peres, authorities said.

Four of the students — Anusha Anumolu (23), Satya S Chinta (25), Anita Lakshmi Veerapaneni (23) and Priya Muppvarapu (23) — died on the spot while Nitesh Adusumilli (27), who was at the wheel, was seriously injured.

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Indo-Tibetan Border Police team to ski down Mount Everest

A daring bid to ski down the 8,848-metre high Mount Everest is set to start on March 23 with a 28-member team of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) commencing a two-month-long expedition from New Delhi.

Eight of these 28 men will attempt skiing down Everest sometime in mid-May after climbing it from the north side (in China), a route considered to be much more challenging than the south side route from Nepal. The mountaineers are likely to take a month to climb the peak.

The ITBP recently procured sophisticated Japanese helmet-mounted cameras to capture the journey of its men climbing the peak and then taking a shot at the world record by skiing down. Two of its men will wear these cameras as the 8-member group begins the descent skiing.

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Indira Gandhi National Open University draws most foreign students to India: study

The latest study on the profile of international students in India shows that it is the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), a distance education institute, which draws the maximum number of foreigners. With 3,000 foreign students in 2005-06, it leaves the other varsities in the country far behind.

Pune University comes second, having attracted over 2,400 foreign students in the same academic year with Manipal University next at 1,400-plus students from abroad. Delhi University finishes fourth with 1,055 students, followed by Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani with 912 foreign students admitted in 2005-06.

The study, conducted by Prof Dayanand Dongaonkar and senior research assistant Dr Usha Rai Negi for the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), has also categorised those coming to study in India by country of origin.

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Election Commission orders transfer of Andhra DGP

The Election Commission on Wednesday ordered the transfer of Andhra Pradesh DGP S S P Yadav who praised Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy during an official visit to Kurnool and Mahbubnagar. THE Election Commission on Wednesday ordered the transfer of AndhraPradesh DGP SSP Yadav who had reportedly praised Chief Minister Y S Rajsekhara Reddy during an official tour on March 8 and 9 to Kurnool and Mahbubnagar districts. The EC also sought a panel of names from the state Government by Friday for Yadav’s replacement,an EC spokesperson said.Yadav is at present on a week long tour to Singapore to attend a conference on home land security.

State Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao had earlier sought an explanation from the DGP after opposition parties complained that he had praised the CM’s initiatives to strengthen the police force at a meeting of police officers of Kurnool district.

Opposition parties had alleged that he had violated the model code of conduct by speaking in favour of the ruling party and government at a meeting that was actually held to educate police officers on the model code for elections.

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‘Badey daraawne naam hotey hain inke... Karimullah, Mazharullah... Varun Gandhi kaat daalega...’

The following are excerpts from speeches that Varun Gandhi is shown as delivering in at least two locations earlier this month in Pilibhit, from where he is contesting as the BJP candidate. The speeches figure in a video recording viewed by The Indian Express. On the directions of the Election Commission, the police today registered a criminal case against Gandhi.

Yeh panja nahi hai, yeh kamal ka haath hai. Yeh kat** ke galey ko kaat dega chunaav ke baad. Jai Shri Ram! Ram ji ki jai! Varun Gandhi kaat daalega! Kaat denge us haath ko, kaat denge, kaat daalega!

[This is not the (Congress symbol) ‘hand’, this is the hand of the ‘lotus’. It will cut the throat of the (derogatory reference to a Muslim) after the elections... Varun Gandhi will cut... Cut that hand, cut it, cut it.]

Apne jao, apne gaon mein jao aur halla karo ki saara Hindu ek tarfa ho jao, chhetra ko Pakistan hone se bachao, aur saara Hindu ek tarfa ho jao!

[Go to your villages and give the call that all Hindus must unite to save this area from becoming Pakistan…]

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Ministry wants 10 years term to check oil pilferers

Faced with growing incidents of “anti-social elements”, including organised gangs, puncturing the oil pipeline network in many parts of the country to pilfer oil and gas, the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gases is working on a legislation that would entail prison term up to 10 years to anyone found guilty of tinkering with the pipeline.

The Ministry’s proposal also says that anybody who tinkers with the pipeline through the use of fire or explosives, knowing fully well that such an act can cause death or serious injury to any person, shall be punishable with death or life imprisonment.

The Petroleum Ministry’s data reveals that pilferage from pipelines is most prevalent in Assam, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

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India story endures, over 100 new FIIs entered in last six months

The Sensex has fallen 31.91 per cent and foreign institutional investors have pulled out over $8.35 billion from Indian markets since September 2008. However, these negative factors have not prevented more foreign investors from coming to India. The number of new FIIs and their sub-accounts have gone up significantly, indicating that foreign inflows will pick up once the sentiment takes a turn for the better.

As per records available with Sebi, as many as 108 new FIIs have registered with the market regulator, taking their total number to 1,625 by March 13 this year from 1,517 in September 2008. The number of FII sub-accounts has also shot up from 4,620 to 4,991. Sub-accounts include foreign corporates, foreign individuals and institutions, funds or portfolios established or incorporated outside India on whose behalf investments are proposed to be made in India by an FII.

The new funds that have entered India include US-based funds like Young Mens Christian Association, Wanburg Pincus International, California Endowment and Managers Funds,

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I’m a middle-class guy: Bharti Airtel CEO after he spooks the market

On a day the markets rose 2.25%, shares of the country’s largest telecom company Bharti Airtel plunged 6.37% to close at Rs 550 after the company disclosed that CEO and joint managing director Manoj Kohli sold his entire stake of 123,000 shares last week for over Rs 7 crore.

While this represents just 0.006% of Bharti’s equity, the fourth most-valued listed company witnessed huge selling shaving off investors’ wealth by Rs 7,109 crore.

In a disclosure on the National Stock Exchange, the company said Kohli sold 70,000 shares in the company on March 9. Estimated on the basis of the closing price of the company at Rs 587.75 on March 9, the value of the transaction is Rs 4.11 crore. Earlier on March 6, Kohli sold 53,000 shares valued at Rs 3.13 crore.

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A footnote to Aman tragedy: anti-ragging Bill pending since 2005

He alleged ragging death of 19- year-old Aman Kachroo in a Himachal medical college has once again high- lighted the limits of deterrence, either through university rules or even court guidelines. In fact, the Union Human Resource Development Ministry has never shown eagerness to come up with a law at the national level.

The Home Ministry too didn’t act on a suggestion of the Supreme Court which, in May 2007, wanted a section to be added to the Indian Penal Code (IPC), making ragging a punishable offence on the lines of Section 498-A which deals with cruelty towards women.

Calling ragging a violation of human rights, a bench of the apex court had said that apart from ragging, abetment to ragging, criminal conspiracy to rag, causing injury, wrongful confinement, use of force, assault as well as sexual offences should also be included in such a section of the IPC. It also wanted the burden of proof in ragging cases to lie on the accused — not the victim.

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Stung by Naveen, BJP ropes in Modi to lead Orissa campaign

Its 11-year alliance with the BJD dead, a bitter BJP is calling in its heaviest hitter to mount an aggressive attack on “most dependable ally” turned “betrayer” Naveen Patnaik. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will spearhead the high voltage BJP campaign, which begins with a Vijay Sankalp rally in Bhubaneswar on March 16.

Modi will not be present at the opening rally, but will thereafter concentrate his energies on Orissa in an extensive, statewide campaign that will also feature the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani, BJP chief Rajnath Singh and former Union minister Sushma Swaraj, said Orissa BJP president Suresh Pujari.

Nearly every senior BJP leader other than Modi will at tend the March 16 show, Pujari said. “We will tell the people of Orissa how trusting Naveen Patnaik is a dangerous step.”

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Tendulkar sets record straight with a century

Paceman Tim Southee was a two year-old toddler when Sachin Tendulkar first toured New Zealand in 1990. The Indian didn’t score too many runs in that series, his second, but the locals were sure they hadn’t seen the last of the 17-year-old, curly haired prodigy. Four years later, New Zealand got a ringside view of the launch of an opening act that became a hugely popular travelling show around the world. In Auckland, Tendulkar, opening in one-dayers for the first time, blasted a memorable, match-winning 49-ball 82.

A lot has changed since then, but not everything. The frame has thickened, the hair has thinned but the halo refuses to fade. They still applaud when he enters the ground and, on Sunday, at the AMI Stadium gave a standing ovation as Tendulkar walked out, retired hurt, for 163.

This despite the fact that the master batsman has been responsible for spoiling the bowling figures of several generations of Kiwi bowlers.

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Mallya’s 1.8 million dollars gets Gandhi items, Government to seek ban on future auctions

Wiser from the last-minute scramble to get a set of Mahatma Gandhi’s personal belongings home from a New York auction, the government plans to move courts abroad to ensure no similar item is put on sale or under the hammer in future.

Early this morning India time, liquor and aviation baron Vijay Mallya successfully bid $1.8 million (Rs 9.3 crore) for the Mahatma’s slippers, pocket watch, plate and bowl, and iconic round glasses put up for auction by their purported American owner James Otis. Mallya, who in 2003 paid Rs 1.5 crore for the legendary sword of Tipu Sultan at an auction in London, said he acted in his “personal capacity”, “for the country”.

The auction took place after Indian government efforts to have it stopped through a Delhi High Court injunction did not succeed immediately, and auctioneers Antiquorum refused to honour Otis’s eleventh-hour plea that he no longer wanted to sell.

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Government appoints directors to boards of Maytas firms

In an expeditious follow-up to the Company Law Board’s (CLB) orders to the government to appoint nominees to the boards of Maytas companies, the ministry of corporate affairs today appointed two nominees for Maytas Infra and one for Maytas Properties. Former-president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India Ved Jain and OP Vaish, a noted corporate lawyer who has also been on several government committees on corporate governance, were appointed as the government nominees on the board of Maytas Infra. Jain was also nominated to Maytas Properties’ board. “Two other directors, including chairman of Maytas Infra, will be appointed later,” corporate affairs minister Premchand Gupta told reporters here.

The government had originally filed two petitions with the CLB to supersede the boards of the two firms to “prevent mismanagement and enable transparency in their functioning”. The CLB, however, decided to only partially allow the petitions permitting the government to appoint four members, including a chairman, on the board of Maytas Infra and one member on the board of Maytas Properties.

In its petitions, the govern- ment had requested the CLB to sack the boards of the two companies and permit it to appoint 10 nominees on each board.

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5 Cities, 1 day: campus citizens sign up as first-time voters

My vote counts: this was the clear message going out from college campuses in five major Indian cities on Wednesday. In a unique initiative demonstrating responsibility and empowerment, over 2,000 young men and women committed themselves to the world’s largest democratic exercise — registering online for inclusion in the voters’ list for the Lok Sabha polls beginning next month.

Most said they believed in the idea of elections, but would possibly not have voted if it hadn’t been for I-Count, a joint initiative by The Indian Express and NGO Janaagraha to encourage 18 year-olds and above to sign up as first-time voters.

On an unusually hot day in Pune, as many as 855 students — the most among all cities — registered at camps set up by I-Count at the Symbiosis International University, Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Modern College and College of Engineering, Pune.

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Final decision on 2011 World Cup in April: International Cricket Council

The International Cricket Council (ICC) does not see cricket returning to Pakistan in the near future and said it will take a final call on the strife-torn nation’s status as a co-host of the 2011 World Cup in its meeting at Dubai next month.

“I believe that there is currently great reluctance — and rightly so — for players to return at this time,” ICC President David Morgan said at a news conference at Lord’s on Tuesday. “But the future situation needs not be perpetuated as it is today. We must not believe that Pakistan is going to be unsafe forever and ever, and we must hope that it won’t be unsafe for too long. Teams should not be expected to go there in the immediate future but things can change and change quickly,”Morgan said.

Regarding Pakistan’s chances about hosting the World Cup in 2011, the ICC chief said, “ICC World Cup is due to be staged in Indian sub-continent shared between four countries,

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Non-oil imports dip first time in six years

Non-oil imports, largely comprised of industrial inputs and capital equipment, contracted for the first time in over six years, by 0.5 per cent in January because of slowing production demand in the industry. Non-oil imports at $13.99 billion accounted for three-fourths of total imports in January.

Monthly trade data released today by the department of commerce showed that overall imports too fell for the first time in January this fiscal by 18.2 per cent. This was because of a plunge in global crude oil prices that pulled down oil imports down by 47.5 per cent in January.

Apart from the sharp drop in oil prices over the past few months, falling exports too could be responsible for the slowdown in imports. Exports dropped for the fourth consecutive month in January by 15.9 per cent to $12.38 billion. “The slump in exports has certainly hit duty-free imports of raw materials for the export sector, which is why non-oil imports have taken a hit,” said K T Chacko, former Director General of Foreign Trade and director of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. Total imports for the April-January period, however, stood at $243.4 billion taking the country’s trade deficit up 65% over that of last year.

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Over 550 posts vacant in Indian Police Service, Government blames ‘neglect’ by NDA regime

The Indian Police Service (IPS) is 557 officers short of its sanctioned strength, the government has revealed. Fifty-six per cent of these vacancies — 314 officers — are in the direct recruitment quota, show figures updated till January 1, 2009.

“How did this situation come about? It is a story of neglect between 1998 and 2004, but I shall share the story with you on another occasion,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram said, making the revelation two days ago.

Chidambaram also announced the appointment of retired IPS officer Kamal Kumar, a former director of the National Police Academy, to draw up, by May 31, a recruitment plan based on an assessment of India’s policing needs between 2009 and 2020.

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