Mumbai, January 5
Fourteen men, who were arrested by the Mumbai Police for molesting two NRI women on New Year’s Eve, have been identified by two newspaper photographers who recorded the incident.

The photographers of the Hindustan Times who were passing by the area outside a city hotel recorded the incident on camera. The publication of the photographs created a furore in the city.

The police subsequently picked up 14 suspects after two men whose photographs appeared in the newspaper were apprehended.

The police said the suspects were paraded before the photographers at the Arthur Road Central Jail.

New Delhi, January 5
Amidst suggestions that he was being shunted out from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the crucial Northern Army, Lt-Gen H.S. Panag today met defence minister A.K. Antony in a bid to stave off the move but apparently did not succeed.

As moves were initiated to shift him after he ordered inquiries in several army procurements, General Panag is understood to have apprised Antony about the facts of these cases in which he wants inquiries to be completed under him.

Defence ministry officials refused to reveal the details of the discussions between the minister and the official.

However, sources said General Panag furnished the findings of the court of inquiry which went into the tent scam and details of 22 other cases.

Antony promised that the probe into the tent scam would be taken to its logical conclusion but gave no assurance about putting on hold his transfer, sources said.

The tent scam took place when the Army chief General Deepak Kapoor was the chief of the Northern Army Command. A Court of Inquiry, headed by Lt-Gen T.K. Sapru, now Western Army Commander, ordered stiff administrative action against a Major General and Colonel in the command for procedural lapses in purchase of tents for troops.

Under the transfer proposal put up to the Ministry of Defence for approval of the Cabinet Committee on Appointments, Panag is to be moved as chief of Central Army Command.

Incumbent Lt-Gen O.P. Nadrajog retires on January 31.

It is understood that Panag has been asked to move to Lucknow after taking the salute at Army Day Parade on January 15.

Lt-Gen P.C. Bhardawaj, Corp Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, where also a number of scams are being probed, is sought to be made the General Officer Commanding in Chief of Northern Command.

Lt-Gen V.K. Singh, presently commanding army's elite 2 Strike Corps, who is billed to take over as the next Army Chief is to move as Eastern Army Commander based in Kolkata. — PTI

Bhubaneswar, January 5
As a fragile peace held in Orissa’s riot-torn Kandhamal district, the state government today saw Maoist’s hand in the violence and claimed the trouble was not due to religious conversion.

“We see the attack on a police station at Brahmanigaon village as a Maoist attack,” home secretary T.K. Mishra told reporters when asked about the role of Maoists in the communal and ethnic violence.

He said the police had evidence that “the attack on Brahamanigaon police station on December 27 was carried out strategically in a manner which was not possible by ordinary villagers. Trained hands could be behind the attack.” The involvement of the Maoists in the attack was evident following the recovery of 12 unlicensed guns from the village, he said.

Mishra claimed that the riots in Kandhamal were not triggered by religious conversion and the state government was keeping a close watch to prevent any further trouble.

A comprehensive package for the violence-hit people would be announced by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik soon, chief secretary Ajit Tripathy said.

According to the latest assessment, 800 houses were damaged in the violence since December 24 with 580 families, including 336 belonging to below the poverty line (BPL), affected, he said. — PTI

Guwahati, January 5
The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has cautioned fence sitters in its ranks against approaching the ‘colonial India security forces’ to prevent them from dropping out.

ULFA spokesman Raju Baruah in a statement e-mailed to the media here stated that extremely tragic end befell those who had approached the ‘colonial India security forces’ to come over ground.

The ULFA alleged that the ‘Indian forces’ in sharp violation of international war laws often resorted to convert these vulnerable youth to double agents to work for the India forces from within the ULFA ranks.

The ULFA statement alleged that ‘India forces’ instead of allowing these youth to surrender, forced them back to ULFA ranks to work as their spies, in some instances to extort money from innocent people in the name of the ULFA and even trigger bomb blasts and carry out killings to defame the ULFA.

“When these gullible youths are unable to comply with the designs of the Indian forces, they are eliminated in fake encounters and presented as ULFA members,” the ULFA alleged.

The ULFA stated that such designs of the ‘colonial Indian forces’ belied the much publicised stand of the Indian colonial state and its politicians and a section of intellectuals who opined that the ULFA problem should be viewed as a political one and should be tackled politically.

Mumbai, January 5
A new 11-year solar cycle began today that may produce solar flares intermittently which in turn can blackout satellite communications and disrupt power transmission at times.

The sun’s activity during the cycle, which is 24th in the last 250 years, will be low initially but intensify to its peak in 2011-12 when frequent solar flares and magnetic storms could occur disrupting satellite communications and power grids.

The solar cycle occurs due to changes in sunspots.

The solar physicists spotted changes in alignment in sunspots, which marked the beginning of the new cycle.

The cycle reverses the north and south pole of the sun leading to changes in magnetic field.

A study by scientists last year revealed that this solar cycle will be 30 to 50 per cent stronger than the previous one which ended yesterday.

Though the average solar cycle is for 11 year, it could range from 9 to 14 years. With the emergence of magnetically reversed high-latitude sunspot today, NASA’s solar physicists described it as the beginning of the next 11-year solar cycle.

“Solar physicists have been waiting for the appearance of a reversed-polarity sunspot to signal the start of the next solar cycle and the wait is over,” the scientists said in the spaceweather alert bulletin.

The solar magnetic activity cycle is the dynamical engine and energy source behind all solar phenomena driving space weather. The solar cycle was discovered in 1843 by Samuel Heinrich Schwabe. — PTI

New Delhi, January 5
The Delhi Lieut-Governor’s move to make photo-identity cards mandatory in the Capital from January 15 today evoked stiff opposition from the BJP, which dubbed it as “impractical”, while the ruling Congress said there were “difficulties” in implementing it.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit appeared to suggest that she was taken by surprise by the move but said her government would take appropriate steps to implement it though there were some “practical difficulties”.

“I have come to know about it and we will take appropriate steps to implement it. There are some practical difficulties in the driving licence issue, but we will try to implement it,” she told reporters here.

“It is a move that has been taken in a haste. The intention may be good, but the practicality of the move should have been taken into consideration,” Delhi Congress chief J.P. Aggarwal said.

BJP chief in Delhi Harsh Vardhan said the move had put a lot of genuine citizens in the Capital at risk as they did not possess any identity card. “Delhi has not become another country. One has to understand the ground reality,” he added.

In a statement, CPM’s Delhi unit urged the government to immediately withdraw the order. “This is nothing but a licence for the harassment of ordinary citizens,” it said.

The move was, however, supported by some other quarters with former IPS officer Kiran Bedi and prominent lawyer Ram Jethmalani saying the security scenario warranted such steps even if it created some inconvenience to some people.

“Looking at the scenario, one should be prepared for such arrangements even if it could cause inconvenience to some people,” Jethmalani told PTI.

Bedi said it was a required step in present circumstances.

“However, the scheme has to be fine-tuned as the critical thing is its implementation. It should not be left to the police alone. The citizens should be involved in it,” she said.

Opposing the move, a prominent lawyer Prashant Bhushan said it was a mistaken notion that by just asking people to produce some documentary evidence of their identity, you will be able to stop terrorism.

“A vast majority of the poor living here have no identification and they are going to be harassed by the law enforcement agencies. The migrant labourers, who have come here to find a living, will be in trouble,” he claimed.

Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal said carrying an identity card would be of immense help.

Asked whether the move put people, who are coming to the city, on greater risk, he said, “That is why we are giving prior information. Let us see, how it works.” Civil rights actvist Sanjay Kaul said it was a good move that would ensure a safer national Capital. — PTI