M A I N   N E W S

Ghising shot in head, condition stable

SILIGURI, Feb 10 — Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Chairman Subhas Ghising was seriously injured in the head in an ambush by unidentified gunmen near Kurseong this evening, leaving three persons, including one of the attackers, dead.

A grenade was hurled at Mr Ghising’s car, with splinters hitting him in the head and neck, Additional SP, Siliguri, Ajoy Kumar, said.

Mr Ghising was rushed to the Paramount nursing home here, where a CT scan was done. "His condition is stable," Chief Medical Officer (Health), Darjeeling, T.N. Chattoraj said.

Besides one of the attackers, the driver of Mr Ghising’s car Suman Chhetri and a civilian were killed in the ambush.

Six security men were also injured and were admitted to a Kurseong hospital. The condition of one of them was stated to be critical, IGP (Law and Order) Prasun Mukherjee said in Kolkata.

The attackers, armed with sophisticated weapons, kept up a 30-minute exchange of fire with the security personnel and torched the pilot car of the GNLF Chief, Mr Mukherjee said.

The five-car convoy was ambushed at Satghumti, near Kurseong at 6.00 pm when Mr Ghising was on his way back to Darjeeling from New Delhi after holding tripartite talks on the future of the DGHC. — PTI 

MSCP to pull out of NDA

IMPHAL, Feb 10 — The Manipur State Congress Party (MSCP), a key constituent of the ruling United Legislature Front in Manipur, has decided to pull out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre, a senior MSCP leader said.

The party would also ask its only representative in the Vajpayee government , Th Chaoba Singh, to resign.

The decision, taken at a meeting of the MSCP legislative wing late last night, comes in the wake of remarks by some Central leaders demanding the imposition of President’s rule in Manipur. — PTI

Narrow escape for 113 coalminers
From Santosh Jha

PATNA, Feb 10 — Close on the heels of the Bagdigi mine tragedy, 114 miners in the Chitudih coalmines of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) in Katras were trapped inside a mine yesterday when a blast breached the wall of the nearby dam and water rushed in. As many as 113 of them are said to have come out safely and only one miner is missing.

Sources in the BCCL maintained that the missing minor might be trapped inside or would have escaped to a safer place. Top BCCL officials, Mr Vinod Kispotta, DC, and Mr Abdul Gani Meer, SP, have rushed to the site and are monitoring the scenario.