Local women with sticks and brooms in their hands took out processions in different areas of Sandeshkhali as the protests intensified on the second day on Friday.
Amid heightened security measures, more than two crore devotees took a dip in the Sangam till 6 pm on Wednesday on the occasion of Maghi Purnima during the ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj.
According to officials, seven employees of the Yojna Bhawan having access to the basement have been detained for questioning.
Seeking to ensure a level-playing field in the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission on Monday ordered the removal of home secretaries of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, sources said.
A two-member committee, comprising senior IAS officer Amitabh Kaushal and Additional Director General of Police Sanjay Latkar, was formed to investigate the violence that left two persons dead and at least 24 people injured, the official told PTI.
The men were associated with the Khalistan Liberation Front.
The gunfight, lasting more than an hour, took place at Jaddan Bata village in the Kastigarh area around 2 am when the terrorists opened fire on a temporary camp established in a government school for the ongoing search operation, they said.
The Punjab police, which is investigating the matter along with their military counterparts, said according to the information gathered so far, the incident was not a terrorist act. The four personnel, in their mid 20s, were sleeping when the firing took place around 4.30 am near the barracks behind a mess.
Minhaz Ahmed and Maseeruddin, both residents of the city, were apprehended by the state police's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and they were planning to 'unleash terror activities on August 15 (Independence Day) in different cities of the state', including Lucknow, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar told reporters.
Journalist and author Chitra Subramaniam has demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) make public its findings from the "box of evidence" received from Switzerland regarding the Bofors payoffs. Subramaniam, author of 'Boforsgate: A Journalist's Pursuit of Truth', expressed concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the evidence, questioning who opened the box, when it was opened, and what it contained. She also raised doubts about the official narrative regarding the alleged bribe in the Bofors case, suggesting the sum of Rs 64 crore may not reflect the full extent of the corruption. Subramaniam also alleged that the CBI planted stories about Hindi film actor Amitabh Bachchan to derail the investigation and launched a political vendetta against the Bachchans. She recalled that Bachchan had come to her home and asked if she had seen his name. The CBI has recently requested assistance from the United States in the case, seeking information from private investigator Michael Hershman, who claims to have crucial details about the scandal. The Bofors scandal, a major bribery case involving the Indian government and the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors in the 1980s, pertains to allegations of a Rs 64-crore bribe in a Rs 1,437-crore deal for the supply of 400 155mm field Howitzers.
The entire area has been cordoned off while drones and sniffer dogs are being used to sniff out the terrorists that might be hiding in the area, they said.
The Uttar Pradesh Police on Monday said it has gunned down a second accused in the Sultanpur jewellery store robbery case in a pre-dawn encounter in Unnao district. "Akhilesh Yadav's wish has been fulfilled, a Thakur has been encountered," said the father of Anuj Pratap Singh.
Over 6,000 loudspeakers were removed from religious places and the volume of another 30,000 was set to permissible limits across Uttar Pradesh following a government order, a senior police official said on Wednesday.
People pelted stones at police personnel in Prayagraj and Saharanpur and protests broke out after Friday prayers in at least four other cities in Uttar Pradesh over a non-suspended BJP leader's recent remarks on Prophet Muhammad.
Rescue teams on Friday used GPS coordinates from aerial drone pictures and cell phones, including the last location of people who lived in the landslides-hit areas of Wayanad to help locate survivors, amidst accelerated search operations after the completion of the 190-foot-long Bailey bridge by the Army.
"But the police are doing everything to identify the culprits involved in setting the train on fire and we will take stern action against them," Additional Director General (police headquarters) Neelmani said in Patna on Thursday.
The Karnataka High Court has quashed the Enforcement Directorate's summons to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's wife Parvathi B M and Urban Development Minister B S Suresh in connection with the MUDA site allotment case. The court ruled that the ED was conducting a parallel investigation despite the case already being probed by the Lokayukta police and a Special Investigation Team (SIT). The ED had alleged that Siddaramaiah and other accused were involved in attempted money laundering in the MUDA site allotment case and that the fourteen sites (plots) allotted to Parvathi in Mysuru upmarket were illegally allotted.
Four of the injured are personnel of UP police, two of them with gunshot wounds, the police said.
From "I hate my life" and "Dear death I am waiting for you" to Bollywood songs about sadness and the final farewell, the recent diary entries of a man who is accused of killing Jammu and Kashmir Director General (Prisons) Hemant K Lohia reveal he was "under depression".
Over 3,000 persons have been booked in connection with violent clashes during an ongoing protest against the Adani port project in Kerala's Vizhinjam area on Sunday night.
An angry Banerjee slammed a minister, a former Trinamool Congress mayor and a few bureaucrats for their "below-par performance".
The Anti-Terrorist Squad of Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday arrested an alleged terrorist linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed, who was tasked with carrying out a fidayeen attack on suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
The police have so far arrested 115 people in connection with the violence that erupted on May 13 night in the sensitive Old City area over a social media post and registered six cases at the Old City and Ramdas Peth police stations.
According to the official, two Punjab residents were arrested following the recovery of one of the biggest narcotic haul this year from Banihal area along Jammu-Srinagar national highway.
A policeman was also injured in the gunfight that broke out in Bajaad village in the Gandoh area around 9:50 am.
The withdrawal of Assam Rifles comes at a time when several groups of women in valley districts launched a demonstration on Monday, demanding the removal of the paramilitary force from the ethnic strife-torn northeastern state.
The senior police officer said the four, after interrogation, revealed their roles and that the police now knows all the participants, conspirators and collaborators involved in the killing of the RSS leader.
Retired army personnel will be appointed as additional superintendents of police to impart training to the police force in Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in Dergaon on Monday.
The chief minister took the decision in a high-level review meeting held for examining the shortcomings in the probe and the findings of the court, said an official statement.
Two Border Security Force jawans and a civilian driver were killed when Naxals blew up their vehicles in Maoist-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.
A 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by three persons in Assam's Nagaon district, triggering massive protests by people on the streets.
On Monday night, BSF troops resorted to firing briefly along the India-Pakistan border in the Jammu district after hearing a humming sound which led to a suspicion that a drone was flying around.
Prajwal Revanna's former car driver Karthik and Bharatiya Janata Party leader G Devaraje Gowda accused each other of leaking the alleged sleaze videos of the Janata Dal-Secular Hassan MP which has caused a big embarrassment to the regional party.
Security forces are using drones and helicopters for surveillance of the dense forest area where terrorists are believed to be holed up since Wednesday after killing two Army officers and a deputy superintendent of police in the initial exchange of fire, the officials said.
Patnaik, a 1985 batch IPS officer from the Union Territories cadre, replaces Alok Verma, who has been named as the new Central Bureau of Investigation director.
Following a stampede at the Maha Kumbh that killed 30 people, the Uttar Pradesh government has stepped up security measures and crowd management efforts. Despite the tragedy, millions of devotees continue to flock to the religious gathering, undeterred by the pre-dawn chill and dense fog. Security forces are being deployed in larger numbers, and new restrictions will be imposed at key locations to prevent further incidents. The authorities are also conducting a thorough review of the arrangements in the Mela area, and several officials are being assigned to oversee operations until February 12.
Uttar Pradesh director general of police HC Awasthy, Sashastra Seema Bal DG Kumar Rajesh Chandra and Special Secretary Home Ministry VSK Kaumudi were short-listed for the post of Central Bureau of Investigation director.
K G Premshankar,additional director general of police in Kerala was on Monday sentenced to six months' simple imprisonment by a court in Kochi in connection with a case of assault on the editor of a Malayalam eveninger from Kannur in 1988.
The terrorists were intercepted near Tawi Bridge when they were travelling in a truck to Kashmir.
Priyanka Gandhi asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will remain silent on the matter.
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