Thekkady victims from across India

At least 35 tourists were drowned when the tourist boat carrying them overturned on the Thekkady Lake in Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala’s Idukky district on Wednesday evening. The toll is likely to go up further as the boat was carrying 76 passengers and only 20 persons, including the two drivers of the boat, have been rescued.

There were unconfirmed reports that the victims included two foreign tourists. At least, 18 women have died in the tragedy. However, Keralites do not figure in the list of the victims so far. While most of the dead were from neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, four of a family from Mumbai as well as tourist from Delhi, West Bengal and Punjab are among those who perished.

Revenue officials said the double-decker boat, owned by Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC),

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Kerala terror module key in 11 accused for Bangalore blasts

The Karnataka police are set to announce they have cracked the July 25, 2008, Bangalore serial blasts case in which one person was killed.

This comes after the arrest of several persons linked to a Kerala-based terror module also involved in sending youths to Lashkare-Toiba training camps for fighting in Kashmir.

Key to the breakthrough is the January 19 arrest of Abdul Sattar alias E T Zainuddin, 57, an electronics engineer. Sattar, a Kerala native but based in Hyderabad where he was arrested, is accused of fabricating the bombs fitted with microchip timers that were used in the Bangalore blasts and in the failed Surat bombs also of July 2008.

Based on details provided by Sattar, the Bangalore police have named five persons accused in the Kerala case of sending youths to terror training camps as key accused in the Bangalore blasts case.

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Kerala points north, makes terror arrest: There’s a Valley link

Almost a fortnight after a suspected militant from Kerala was killed by security agencies in North Kashmir, the state police today arrested Abdul Jaleel, 38, a resident of Kannur. Jaleel, an activist of Kerala-based right wing Muslim outfit National Development Front (NDF), is alleged to have had close links with the suspected militant.

According to state intelligence sources, Jaleel, had been under the police radar for some time now following law and order issues in his locality of Edakkadu in Kannur. A painter by profession, he was allegedly active in propagating fundamentalism. He had also taken part in a recent rally organised by the NDF in Kannur to protest against the Indo-US nuclear deal.

While tracking his movements, police reportedly stumbled upon several mobile phone calls that Jaleel had received from Kashmir till October 5, two days before the encounter in Kupwara in which the suspected militant from Kerala was killed.

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Buddha dare not speak here: 75 strikes in Kerala already this year and losing count

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s remark against bandhs may be politically very incorrect for his comrades but, factually, it couldn’t have been more accurate.

Ask Rodiya, the mother stranded at the Thiruvananthapuram railway station barely eight days ago when Left unions called a 24-hour hartal — not a bandh since bandhs were effectively banned by the Kerala High Court in 1997 against the “economic policies of the Centre.”

Rodiya, from Kottayam, got the news that her five-year-old son had died. Roads being blocked, she rushed to the railway station where citing the “neoliberal” policies of the Centre, a group of comrades squatted on the tracks. Her tears were of little help. Kottayam is barely three hours away from Thiruvananthapuram but Rodiya reached her home only late evening and that, too, under police protection.

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Kerala violence reaches Delhi: Sangh, CPM clash

In a violent fallout to clashes between cadres of the CPM and Sangh in Kerala, RSS-BJP activists today targeted the CPM head quarters in New Delhi, leading to clashes and stone pelting which left at least 10 CPM members, 12 from the RSS and eight policemen injured. The Rapid Action Force had to be called in and police had to use teargas to scatter the crowds.

Fifteen people, including six BJP councillors and two former MLAs, were later arrested and charged with rioting, obstructing a public servant on duty and holding a demonstration without prior permission.

Trouble began this morning when over Sangh activists marched up to A K Gopalan Bhawan - the CPM headquar ters in Gole Market - where a meeting of the party central committee was on. "At around 11 am, when we took a break for tea, we realised that a few RSS protestors were forcing their way into our office. The police were unable to stop them. When we tried to reason with them, they started pelting stones," said Hari Singh Kang, a CPM central committee member who was among the injured.

The BJP and RSS members, on the other hand, claimed they were leading a peaceful protest over seven deaths in Kannur in Kerala. They alleged that the CPM began the stone-pelting.

"We were in a peaceful protest and before we knew it, Left party members were pelting stones at us from the first floor of their office. I tried to stop our party workers from retaliating when a big stone hit me in the head," said Moolchand Chawla of the BJP. "They provoked us into retaliating but we remained peaceful," he said.


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