Palpable tension continues to grip Udalguri and Darrang districts of Assam, where the death toll in the communal clashes that started on Thursday went up to 40, late on Sunday night. The violence has so far driven around one lakh persons to refugee camps.

The administration today deployed four companies of Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in the riot-affected districts. This is in addition to the five companies of paramilitary force personnel and 11 columns of Army men that are already deployed.

Principal secretary of Assam home department Subhas Chandra Das informed that out of the 40 killed so far, 26 persons died in firing by security forces. However, there was no report of fresh clashes from both the districts on Monday.

He said over one lakh affected people had taken shelter in 45 refugee camps in Udalguri district and 24 relief camps in Darrang districts. Das added that the situation was still tense in both the districts and curfew was on.

Meanwhile, an agitated mob today blocked the National Highway 31 at Samthaibari in Chirang district in protest against failure of the government to contain the communal flare-up in Darrang and Udalguri districts. The group attacked vehicles on the highway injuring several persons, and the police had to resort to a lathicharge to disperse them.

The state Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said helicopters have been pressed into action to increase the vigil in the interior areas of both the districts. Gogoi alleged that the banned Bodo militant group and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) was adding fuel to the communal flare up and asked the outfit, which is now in truce with government of India, to observe restraint or scrap the ceasefire agreement.

An all-party delegation of opposition parties comprising Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), AGP (Progressive), CPI, CPM and Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) visited parts of violence- affected districts and met refugees at various camps. However, AUDF members, led by its president Badaruddin Azmol, were chased away by agitated camp inmates at Bhakatpara in Udalguri district.

New Delhi, October 6
Trial courts can frame charges against the accused on the basis of ''strong suspicion'', without bothering about the chances of conviction, the Supreme Court has ruled.

A Bench comprising Arijit Pasayat and Mukundakam Sharma made the observation while setting aside a Madhya Pradesh High Court judgment which had quashed criminal charges against some persons in an alleged case of cheating (Section 420 of the IPC) and breach of trust (Section 406 of the IPC).

The trial court had framed the charges against accused Sanjay Chowdhary and another person on the complaint of Sanghi Brothers, Indore, who had given their vehicles on lease in Indore.

Sanghi Brothers had alleged that the accused had taken 45 dumper vehicles and four light commercial vehicles on lease in November 1988, but sold off eight vehicles, committing cheating and breach of trust.

The HC quashed the charges, observing that no charges under Sections 420 and 406 of the IPC were clearly made out on the basis of evidence on record and it was also not so unimpeachable that if it was not rebutted then a conviction could be based on it.

The complainant then filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the apex court, challenging the HC order. The accused took the defence that the sale of the vehicle was permitted by the complainant, who had also encashed the bank guarantee and hence the charges were unsustainable.

Upholding the complainant's plea, the apex court said that at the stage of framing of a charge, probative value of the materials on record need not be gone into and instead the materials brought on record by the prosecution should be accepted as true at that stage.

Mumbai, October 6
The anti-narcotics cell of the Mumbai police detained 239 persons, including 35 women and several foreign nationals, following a raid at a Mumbai disco on Sunday night.

Acting on a tip-off, the police raided the Bombay 72 degrees East discotheque located in the posh Juhu area shortly before midnight. The police said it sent two decoys, who had been tracking the city's party scene via social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook.

Officials of the ANC descended on the discotheque said to be part-owned by well-known film-maker of yesteryear, Prakash Mehra, and found huge quantities of narcotics like cocaine, LSD and Ecstasy tablets in the possession of several people at the party. Eight persons, suspected to be drug dealers, were arrested.

Also detained was Siddhant Kapoor, son of Bollywood actor Shakti Kapoor, who is a professional disc jockey who plays at several party zones.

The police conducted “panchnamas” and blood tests on all arrested persons. DCP Vishwas Nangre-Patil, head of the ANC who carried out the raid, said the police would formally charge those whose blood and urine tests were positive for various drugs.

According to Nangre-Patil, the party was held to celebrate the presence of an Israeli DJ, named Technodrome, who was performing in India for the first time on Sunday night. The DJ whose real name was given as Shay Ben Haiun was caught with cocaine.

The police said most of the present at the party were call centre employees and were brought together by an outfit called Scratch Entertainment, which allegedly organised such rave parties at different places .

Later in the day, actor Shakti Kapoor told reporters that his son was innocent. "Siddhant travels everywhere as a disc jockey. He is not into drugs," Kapoor said. The actor further added that his son was released and would be coming home soon.

New Delhi, October 6
In the backdrop of the recent serial blasts in the country, the government is mulling a proposal to rope in private security agencies whose personnel will lookout for unclaimed objects and suspicious people and assist the local police, a top home ministry official said. “Private security guards in the country have a strength of nearly 52 lakh and our total number of police personnel amount to just about half their strength. Tapping into the vast resource is an option before us,” a top home ministry official said. When asked the specific task that the private security agencies would be given, he said, “We are still working out the fine points. There is a proposal before us. They can keep a strict vigil and report any suspicious person or watch out for unclaimed objects.” He said the government is seriously considering the role of private security agencies as one of the tools to counter terrorism amid growing militant threat to a number of establishments.

“It is not fair to expect the police to be present everywhere. Private security agencies have an edge as they are usually stationed in large numbers at various premises. A thorough training and use of modern gadgets can prevent terror threat to such premises,” he said.

Earlier, the Central Association of Private Security Industry and Association of Private Detectives and Investigators had offered to play a larger role in intelligence gathering and ensuring security at public places.

The twin associations had also sought modalities under the Private Security Regulation Act, 2005, to be made clearer for the functioning of private security bodies across the country. — PTI

New Delhi, October 6
The second edition of the Rajasthan International Folk Festival (RIFF) has been cancelled as a mark of respect to those killed and injured in a stampede at Jodhpur's Chamunda Devi temple recently. The five-day festival, also known as the Jodhpur Folk Festival was scheduled to begin at Jodhpur on October 10.

The Chamunda Devi temple inside the huge 15th century Mehrangarh Fort was the scheduled venue of the festival. Over 200 people were killed and scores of others injured in a stampede at the temple on September 30, which marked the beginning of the nine-day festival of Navratra.

Organised jointly by the Jaipur Virasat Foundation of Jaipur and the Mehrangarh Museum Trust of Jodhpur and patronised by the Maharaja of Jodhpur, the festival according to organisers was aimed at providing an international platform to Rajasthan’s folk artistes to showcase their potential worldwide.

Grammy-winning rock musician and songwriter Mick Jagger was billed as the highlight of this year’s festival. Jagger had attended the inauguration of the cultural event past October at the Mehrangarh Fort.

Shubha Mudgal and Ustad Sultan Khan, along with a host of international artists like Ace Beat Boxer and Composer Jason Singh from UK, a gypsy band from Hungary and Jazz artistes from the US and Netherlands were expected to perform at the festival. — PTI

Agartala, October 6
Banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) today denied their involvement in the October 1 Tripura blasts and demanded justice while giving a clean chit to Jihadi terrorism.

Claiming himself to be a spokesperson of the outfit from an undisclosed location to a local media organisation, an NLFT activist said over phone that they did not have any association with fundamentalist groups like ISI, HUJI, SIMI and Al-Qaida.

He said Jihadi outfits were not involved in Agartala serial blasts and suspected that it might be a handiwork of RAW or other intelligence agencies, who did it to create panic before Eid and Durga Puja.

Even after five days of the incident, the police was, meanwhile, neither able to find out any definite clue of the incident nor make any conclusive decision about the criminals while the intelligence officials were interrogating the arrested persons.

According to reports, the CID has been tracking all outgoing and incoming calls to and from the state people prior to blasts, especially from September 30 last. The authorities sought detail list of the callers and receivers, including STD and ISD calls, from the tele service providers.

The intelligence sources claimed that National Security Guards (NSG) and Central Forensic Laboratory officials had assured to draw the conclusion of the incident by next couple of days and made it clear that ingredients and mechanism of the bombs were similar to Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi blasts.

“We are examining all entries at check posts in Tripura from Bangladesh on the basis of religious faith and age group along with other important parameters,” the police officials said and added that all documents of Indo-Bangladesh passports issued in favour of Indians from here in the past three months had been sought. — UNI

Roorkee, October 6
The Uttarakhand Sanyukt Sanghrah Samiti (USSS), today observed a 'Protest Day' here, registering its dissent against the alleged order of the state government that it would not offer jobs to agitators of the Uttarakhand movement from October 2 onwards.

Former Congress minister and USSS president Dhirendra Pratap, while strongly criticising the order said, "It was during the previous Congress government regime that a legislation was passed in which it was decided to offer jobs to those 'Uttarakhandi agitators' who were arrested and remained in jail for seven days and the same offer was also given to those who were injured during the police firing, but now the BJP government has declared unilaterally that it would not provide jobs to them in future, which is most unfortunate."

New Delhi, October 6
The Guru Granth Sahib alone can unite the humanity, said Vice-President, M. Hamid Ansari, while releasing the book “Guru Granth Sahib: The Guru Eternal, authored by Dr Mohinder Singh”.

The book was released in the national capital last weekend and M. Hamid Ansari, the Vice-President of India, said the Guru Granth Sahib alone could unite the humanity. He was speaking at a function organised by the national institute of Panjab studies in connection with the tercentenary of Gurgaddi diwas of Guru Granth Sahib, wherein, Gursharan Kaur, wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also inaugurated an exhibition of photographs of rare Guru Granth Sahib birs.

The Vice-President said an unique aspect of the book before was that it brought together many facets of faith and history and did so in a volume. Some rare and excellent photographs by Raghu Rai, Hardev Singh, Sondeep Shankar and the image of the Golden Temple believed to be the first camera photograph by William Baker also finds a place in the book.

In one sense, it is an excellent introduction to the Sikh faith. While speaking on the occasion, Pir Hasan Sani Nizami of Dargah Nizamuddin Auliya, paid tribute to the vision of Guru Arjan Dev, who tried to create emotional unity through compilation of the Adi Granth. Dr V. Mohini Giri highlighted the Gurus’ concern for women and the downtrodden.

Dr. J.S. Neki spoke about the newly established Guru Granth Sahib resource centre, Dr Amrik Singh, chairman of the institute, emphasised the need to spread the message of Guru Granth Sahib through translation of selected hymns into various Indian and foreign languages.

The function was attended among others by Sir Mark Tully, Archbishop Vincent Concesco, Tarlochan Singh, S.H.S. Josh, Pushpinder Singh, Bhai Sikandar Singh Bagrian, Dr Maheep Singh, Regina Singh from Orange County California, Ambassador S.J.S. Chhatwa and Levent Bilmann, Turkey's ambassador to India.

New Delhi, October 6
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is ready to put its demand for the creation of a separate state of Telangana on hold so that it can allign with the Left parties, specially the CPM.

TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao gave an assurance to this effect to CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, when he called upon the two leaders at the CPM headquarters here yesterday.

The CPM will now take up the question of alliances in Andhra Pradesh, including a possible tie up with the TRS at its central committee(CC) meeting scheduled in Kolkata on October 12, 13 and 14, party sources said.

The move has major political significance for both the TRS as well as Andhra politics. Rao resigned from the TDP and floated the TRS sometime late in 2001-02, on a single point agenda of creating a separate state of Telangana. It aligned with the Congress and the Left in 2004 general and assembly elections and all three components benefited from this alliance.

After elections, Rao joined the union cabinet. But later resigned from the government and delinked from the UPA on the same issue. But in the recent byelections the TRS faced major reverses both in terms of loss of seats as well as voting percentage. CPM sources feel that Rao was guided by this pragmatism to seek an alliance with the Left.

He has been in touch with the CPI leaders for some time. And the state CPI had been urging the CPM to come on board too. But the CPM, which is opposed in principle to the formation of Telangana was reluctant to align with the TRS if it insisted on carrying on a campaign about separate Telangana.

The CPM in the meanwhile is inclined to go along with the TDP led by former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. TDP too was opposed to Telangana. But now with this assurance an alliance between the TRS, the Left and the TDP appears to be in the offing.

Formally, the CPM sources said the CC will weigh the pros and cons of aligning either with the TDP or Telugu filmstar Chiranjeevi’s new political outfit the ‘Praja Rajyam.’

Even the Kapus, whom this Praja Rajyam seeks to represent constitute good 21.7 per cent of the state’s voting population, the CPM does not appear keen on aligning with Chiranjeevi. The CPM sources said, “It has been two and half months since Chairnjeevi floated his party but he has been postponing his election campaign tours. He had earlier announced that he would start off his yatra in the first week of September,” said CPM insiders from Andhra.

“Moreover on the one hand his confidants talk of grand alliance, on the other he has said he will contest all seats in Andhra Pradesh. But we will discuss all this in our CC and only then arrive at any decision,” the CPM sources said.

New Delhi, October 6
India will wait and watch to see if new Pakistan’s new President Asif Ali Zardari’s statement, describing militants in Jammu and Kashmir as ‘terrorists’ is merely aimed at pleasing New Delhi or he seriously means what he says.

Though there was no official reaction to Zardari’s remarks, minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma is reported to have welcomed the Pakistan’s leader’s statement.

Sharma was quoted as saying by news agencies that the statement had been “made, perhaps, for the first time by a top Pakistani leader, which is in contrast with its earlier position of terming militants as jehadis”. “India had always raised the matter of cross-border terrorism in the international fora and Zardari's statement confirms this”, Sharma said.

Sources here said New Delhi felt that Zardari must be given time to prove his sincerity about improving ties with India. Since he assumed the Presidentship of Pakistan, Zardari has been making the right noises about India-Pakistan ties.

In this connection, the sources recalled that the recent meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan singh and Zardari in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly had also gone off well with the two leaders agreeing to start the cross-LOC trade.

The joint anti-terror mechanism between the two sides is also scheduled to meet soon.

The sources said India would monitor in coming days whether Zardari was serious about the commitment he made to the Indian Prime Minister that he would not allow the misuse of the Pakistani territory for anti-India activities.

New Delhi, October 6
Naval chief Sureesh Mehta today said he expected the Pranab Mukherjee-led ministerial committee to give its recommendations within a fortnight.

The committee was formed by the Prime Minister to look into the anomalies that followed the Sixth Pay Commission notification.

Admiral Mehta rubbished reports in a section of media that defence minister A.K.Antony had censured him for his “defiance” over implementing the pay commission in the armed forces. I think the media is quoting things which never happened, and bringing out issues, which have no substantiation at all, he told reporters here when referred to a news report that he was pulled up by Antony for the third time for defiance over the pay commission recommendations.

Mehta reiterated that the grievances over the pay commission were "not about money", but about status equivalence and command and control issues.

The issues "missed out" were oversights and nobody could have done it wilfully, he told reporters here on the sidelines of the inauguration of a naval function at the India Habitat Centre.

Admiral Mehta said: "I said so the other day and I will say it again. The issue over here is not about money. The issue here is that there is a certain status equivalence -- there are certain functional requirements working at particular levels."

Pointing out that problem arose in the field areas, where paramilitary and forces were working together, he said: "If there is a command and control problem, there is a big issue there. And that is what is happening in the control rooms. You know that in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir we have got these kinds of set-ups."

New Delhi, October 6
The Congress today charged the Naveen Patnaik government in Orissa with failure to protect the Christian minorities but stopped short of demanding imposition of President’s Rule in the state.

The state government should take immediate steps to put a stop to violence against minorities and bring to book those responsible for the rape of a nun in Kandhamal, Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan told reporters here.

“The state government has done nothing to put an end to violence against the Christian minorities. It has only allowed the situation to deteriorate further,” she said, adding the Chief Minister had failed in discharging his constitutional responsibility. “We are not demanding President’s Rule.... All we want is that the Chief Minister should fulfil his constitutional responsibility to ensure the safety of the minorities.”

She emphasised that the President’s Rule could be imposed only if all constitutional parameters were met. Giving some statistics on the violence against the minorities in Orissa and Karnataka, she said 50 Christians had been killed, more than 5,000 of their dwellings razed, at least 1,000 churches torched and over 50,000 Christians rendered homeless.

The most horrific dimension of the violence had been the rape of a nun last month, but the state government was yet to arrest the culprits. It had merely called the incident unfortunate. She wondered as to why violence had been unleashed against the minorities when the Maoists had claimed the responsibility for the killing of VHP leader Lakshmananda Saraswati, which apparently triggered the attacks in the two states. To a question, she said the Bajrang Dal and the VHP were ‘eminently suitable’ cases for a ban as they had openly admitted their guilt.

Meanwhile, the Congress rejected the Samajwadi Party’s demand for a judicial inquiry into the September 19 Batla House encounter in New Delhi. “We are not asking for a judicial probe,” Natarajan said. “Any misgiving (about the encounter) will be addressed by the government,”she said. On Saturday, SP general secretary Amar Singh had visited the Batla House locality and demanded a judicial probe besides seeking the resignation of Home Minister Shivraj Patil for allegedly mishandling the issue.

Bangalore, October 6
India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, is scheduled to be launched from the spaceport of Sriharikota at 6.20 am on October 22, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sources said today.

The satellite was transported from here to Sriharikota in a special vehicle last week and has reached the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR).

The spacecraft is expected to be paired with ISRO's work-horse rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) later this week, the sources added.

The spacecraft will carry 11 payloads -- five from India and six from the US, Europe and Bulgaria. It would be launched on board PSLV-C11. Chandrayaan-1 satellite will orbit the moon at an altitude of 100 km, mapping the topography and the mineralogical content of the lunar soil.

Chandrayaan-1 will also carry a Moon Impact Probe payload for demonstrating the technology needed towards landing on the moon's surface. India believes the Rs 386-crore lunar mission is a step towards its quest for exploration of outer space and inter-planetary missions. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Rajiv Gandhi Wildlife Award for Dr Prakash Amte
New Delhi: This year's Magsaysay Award winner for community work Dr Prakash Baba Amte, who manages an animal orphanage at Gadchiroli in Maharashtra, was on Monday conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Wildlife Conservation Award, 2006. The award is in recognition of his work towards raising awareness about the importance of wildlife among tribals in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district. Dr Amte runs an animal orphanage at his Lok Biradari health project in Hemalkasa at Gadchiroli. He successfully convinces tribals to refrain from killing animals for food, and bring them to him instead. — UNI

French woman robbed
GWALIOR: An unidentified miscreant here has robbed a French woman of her purse containing her passport, cellular phone, Rs 8,000 in cash and other important documents, the police said on Monday. Tourist Warli, a resident of Paris, was purchasing some ornaments with her friend at a jewellery shop when the theft took place at Topibazar area on Sunday. A case was registered and a manhunt was launched, the police added. — UNI

8 killed in road mishap
VADODARA: Eight persons, including three children, were killed and seven others injured on Monday in a road mishap at Limdi, 150-km from here, the police said. The mishap took place at Vadoda Patiya village near Limdi in early hours following a collision between two trucks, they said. The victims were from Savli village, the police said, adding that all the injured have been admitted to a hospital in Limdi. The deceased have not been identified yet. — PTI

MLA’s house attacked
IMPHAL: Thangjam Nandakishwor Singh, MLA of Kshetrigao, Imphal East, escaped unhurt when suspected militants threw a bomb at his residence here on Sunday night. The police on Monday said no one was injured in the attack. Singh was not present in the house at the time of the attack as he stays at his official residence here, the sources said, adding that the militants escaped under the cover of darkness. — UNI