tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Wednesday, March 24, 1999
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Two Chhota Shakeel aides killed
MUMBAI, March 23 (PTI) — Two Chhota Shakeel gangsters, alleged to be involved in the abortive attempt on the life of film producer Ramesh Sharma, were today gunned down by the police in an encounter at Bandra today. Acting on a tip-off that Ashfaq Ismail Khalpe along with his associate would be arriving at the B.J. Road in North-West Mumbai to kill a businessman during his morning walk, the police laid a trap in the vicinity, North-Western zone Additional CP Rakesh Maria told reporters today. As soon as the duo arrived on the spot on a motorcycle and began surveying the area the police ordered them to surrender. The gangsters, however, whipped out their firearms and began firing indiscriminately at the police who immediately retaliated by opening fire. The injured gangsters were rushed to Bhabha Hospital where they were declared dead before admission.

100 massacred in Congo
UVIRA, Congo, March 23 (Reuters) — About 100 civilians have been massacred in eastern Congo in the latest outbreak of inter-ethnic fighting in the region, residents said today. Local Mai Mai warriors allegedly hired by Rwanda’s government killed 100 villagers at Magunga on the eastern frontier of the democratic republic of Congo last morning. ‘They came at 2 a.m. They encircled the village and started to kill people with machetes,’ Magunga’s village chief Samson Muhizi said.

Expulsion begins
NITZANA (Israel), March 23 (AFP) — The Israeli Army today began expelling more than 800 Bedouin who entered Israel illegally from Egypt last week but were refused asylum, officials said. A large force of army troops and policemen were deployed to oversee the expulsion via a desert border post near Nitzana but there were no reports of trouble. The deportation began after assurances from the Egyptian authorities guaranteeing the security of the Bedouin.