Hyderabad blasts: 3 grilled for ‘providing’ bikes to Indian Mujahideen for recce

HYDERABAD: In a significant breakthrough in the Dilsukhnagar bomb blasts, the city police have zeroed in on the three persons who had allgedly supplied motorcycles for Indian Mujahideen activists Syed Maqbool and Imran Khan to conduct the recce of three areas in the city including Dilsukhnagar sometime last year. The three persons are Masdoor-ur-Rehman, Abrar and Adnan Ahmed, all Hyderabadis. The...

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Hyderabad cops want to keep blast probe to themselves

HYDERABAD: In a clear rebuke to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that has been pressing for transfer of the Dilsukhnagar twin blasts case to it, the Hyderabad police on Friday transferred the case to its own Special Investigation Team (SIT). Headed by additional CP, crimes, of Hyderabad police, Sandeep Shandillya, SIT comprises six teams who have been informally probing the blasts till now.The...

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Manik Sarkar, son of tailor, to be Tripura chief minister again

AGARTALA: Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, set to assume office for a fourth time after leading the Left to a huge electoral win, is the son of a tailor who still washes his own clothes.An unassuming man, the 64-year-old got down to work no soon than he was declared the winner from Dhanpur constituency. He met CPM leaders and activists at Sonamura, 60km from here. On Thursday, the Communist...

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Mumbai safest city in India, solo women travellers say

MUMBAI: Even as crimes against women are making headlines in the city, women, who travel alone, still consider Mumbai the safest city compared to other Indian metros, and Maharashtra the safest state. Not surprisingly, Delhi was tagged the least safest city in India. These findings were part of a countrywide survey that recorded the perception of solo woman travellers. "Due to the recent spate of...

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Bansalonomics: High on substance, low on flourish

NEW DELHI: A meticulous parliamentarian, railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal didn't seem too nervous before his maiden budget. But he did quickly glance through the list of business, as the Lok Sabha dispensed with routine pursuits, to check when it would be his turn. Just then, Bansal realized he needed to fix his lapel mike. Soon the wire was neatly concealed under his tunic while the wooden support...

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Manmohan will visit UAE next month

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) next month, government sources confirmed on Monday. This will be the first visit by an Indian PM to the Gulf country in 32 years. The last visit was by Indira Gandhi in 1981. Singh will visit Abu Dhabi en route to Durban, where is scheduled to attend the BRICS summit in the fourth week of March. Government has been...

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Karunanidhi slams AIADMK, BJP over stand on Sethusamudram

CHENNAI: DMK Chief M Karunanidhi on Sunday called on the Centre to take steps to present a strong case before the Supreme Court on the Sethusamundram shipping channel project sought to be blocked by "communal forces". Flaying the BJP and the AIADMK for their stand on the project, Karunanidhi said the national party, while in power, had proposed the alignment for the project which involved dredging...

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Hyderabad blasts: Local outfit under police’s scanner

HYDERABAD: With no breakthrough so far in Dilsukhnagar serial blasts that claimed 17 lives and left nearly 150 injured, the investigating agencies are scanning the activities of Dursgah-e-Jihad-o-Shahadat (DJS), a city-based outfit whose members were alleged to have been involved in a series of terror attacks in the past. "DJS has been a training ground for militants in the past. Many of them had...

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Indian Mujahideen shows yet again that it is alive and kicking

NEW DELHI: Indian Mujahideen, Pakistani terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba's proxy in India, may have been down after the August 2012 Pune serial blasts but it's certainly not out as it has the capacity to regroup after every clampdown. The Hyderabad incident has once again proved that the banned group is not only alive but also kicking through its potent sleeper cells in different states.Getting continuous...

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Terror returns, again on cycle: 13 killed in Hyderabad twin blasts

HYDERABAD: It proved to a lull before a terrifying storm. Seventeen months after the last deadly bomb blast at the Delhi High court, two powerful bombs fastened to parked bicycles ripped through Hyderabad's bustling Dilsukhnagar area on Thursday, killing at least 13 persons and injuring 70 others. While no individual or group has claimed responsibility so far, intelligence officers insist that the...

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CBI quizzes Balwa about leaked tape in 2G case

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Wednesday questioned 2G scam accused Shahid Balwa in connection with audio recordings of purported conversation between its prosecutor A K Singh and another accused Unitech Managing Director Sanjay Chandra on the case. Balwa arrived at the CBI headquarters and was immediately taken before the special team constituted by CBI director Ranjit Sinha to probe the matter.He was questioned...

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Why jail for common man and reprimand for Army men? SC asks

NEW DELHI: If a common man gets jailed for violating the Arms Act, then why are Army personnel, adjudged to have committed the same offence by a Court of Inquiry for selling their non-service weapons, let off after just a reprimand and a fine of Rs 500?A Supreme Court bench of Justices S S Nijjar and M Y Eqbal on Tuesday posed this and other searching questions during the hearing of a PIL filed five...

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Uproar in legislature over 'Surya Namaskar'

PATNA: The issue of Surya Namaskar being organized in schools across Bihar rocked the joint session of the state legislature on Monday during the governor's address. Even as governor Devanand Konwar was midway through his address, an RJD member raised the issue. Immediately, the BJP members got up in rage and came almost on the verge of clash with RJD members.What angered the saffron party members,...

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Samajwadi Party aims to repeat backward caste vote formula in Lok Sabha polls

LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party rode to power in Uttar Pradesh last year by fetching a major chunk of backward caste votes. The party is eyeing to repeat the same winning formula in 2014 LokSabha elections and has set the ball rolling by demanding the inclusion of 17 backward castes in the scheduled castes list. The party has also declared a public holiday on April 5 on account of GuharajNishadrajJayanti,...

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Global watchdog sees Chennai’s tiny shop as supplier to Iran’s nuclear programme

CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: A tiny firm in a dark alley in Chennai's electronic spare parts hub on Meeran Sahib Street has been unwittingly catapulted into the midst of a suspected nuclear smuggling operation. A reputed proliferation watchdog has cited the company as a likely supplier to Iran's nuclear programme. Ferrito Plastronics, a modest establishment with a reported turnover of Rs 2 crore-Rs 5 crore,...

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Drastic decline in deaths on Indo-Bangladesh border: DG BSF

JAISALMER: Decline in deaths on the Indo-Bangladesh border has been possible after India decided to use less lethal weapons at the border. This has also resulted in continuous improvement in relations between the two countries. This information was given by the newly appointed director general of BSFSubhashJoshi during his stay at Jaisalmer. Joshi is here to participate in the closing ceremony of...

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Rafale talks progressing well: PM

NEW DELHI: French president Francois Hollande on Thursday ruled out any AgustaWestland-type scam in India's purchase of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), one of India's biggest defence deals ever, saying that there will be nothing in the ongoing negotiations contrary to the "principles common to us". France and India entered exclusive negotiations for purchase of Dassault Aviation's Rafale...

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Tyagi cousins got benefit of clout?

NEW DELHI: The emergence of the three low profile Tyagi brothers as key middlemen in swinging the huge defence contract for VVIP helicopters in 2010 has surprised many, given the dominance of India's arms trade by a few families as illegal agents. In the past several years, the three Tyagi brothers have never been known to be major middlemen, capable of illegally manipulating big defence contracts....

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National Advisory Council to discuss cash transfer scheme

NEW DELHI: National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi has agreed to discuss the cash transfer scheme at a meeting of the UPA's think tank after some members raised concerns about its efficacy and consequences for other social security schemes run by the government, especially the National Food Security Bill. The scheme is likely to be deliberated upon at the next meeting of the council...

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Don’t agonize over my death, Afzal Guru wrote in last letter

NEW DELHI: The morning that Afzal Guru was to be executed, he wrote a letter to his wife, Tabassum. Written in Urdu, he handed it over to jail officials before he was marched out for his execution. "He pressed the letter into the jail superintendent's handjust before he was asked to step out of his cell. All he said was that it was meant for his wife and to please ensure that it reached her safely,"...

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