M A I N   N E W S

17 labourers shot in Assam

Guwahati, January 22
Seventeen Bihari labourers, including nine women, were killed, four others were injured and 20 houses set ablaze by the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in Assam’s Darrang district, official sources said here today. A seriously injured man who was brought to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital following last night’s massacre, succumbed to injuries.

A group of at least 15 NDFB ultras raided the remote village of Junglebari under Udalguri police station along the Indo-Bhutan border and asked the villagers to come out of their houses before shooting them, government spokesman Himangshu Sekhar Das said.

The village was inhabited by people from Bihar who had settled in the area since long and were engaged as daily wage labourers. PTI

Karzai unhurt in car accident

Tokyo, January 22
Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai escaped unhurt from a multiple-vehicle collision today on the high-speed Shuto expressway here, the police said.

“Mr Karzai was in the second car among the five vehicles involved in the collision,” Mr Hideo Mizusawa, Deputy Head, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s (expressway traffic unit) said.

“He was unhurt,” the officer said, adding that Karzai had quickly left the scene of the accident to continue with his schedule.

The accident took place around 4.50 p.m. in downtown Shibuya district.

Mr Karzai was travelling in a six-car motorcade shortly after addressing journalists at the Japan National Press Club at the end of a two-day conference on Afghanistan’s reconstruction. AFP