S P O T L I G H T

4 non-Manipuris gunned down
IMPHAL, Dec 18 (PTI) — Unidentified militants have shot dead four non-Manipuris after they were called out of their homes at Sugnu Bazar in Manipur’s Thoubal district, official sources said today. The militants lines up the victims, all of them small traders at Sugnu Bazar, and shot them dead one by one from close range after asking them to step out of their houses at 8 pm last night, they said. This is the second such attack on non-Manipuris by armed militants within four days in Manipur.

4 killed in blast
KOHIMA, Dec 18 (PTI) — four persons were killed and 14 injured when a powerful bomb exploded in a bus, carrying mostly students, in Nagaland’s Wokha district today. The bomb, planted under the chassis of the vehicle, exploded near a stone quarry as the bus was en route from Dimapur to Wokha, 80 km from here, Inspector General of Police C. Kikon told PTI.

Jamaat man shot
KARACHI, Dec 18 (AP) — Assailants shot and killed a prominent religious party leader as he walked to the mosque in southern Karachi today to say his early morning prayers, said the police. Dr Athar Quereshi, leader of Pakistan’s small, but well-organised Jamaat-e-Islami was killed by three men who approached him in a vehicle in central Karachi, they said. One man stepped out of the vehicle and shot Quereshi, who is also a former member of Pakistan’s Sindh Provincial Assembly, the police said.