Passengers, who were traveling by the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express which was held up by Maoist-backed agitators for over five hours on Tuesday in West Midnapore in West Bengal, on Wednesday voiced their apprehensions over the lack of security measures in passenger trains."There was no security arrangement in the train. No security personnel of the police department or the railway police force were there," said one passenger.
The minister termed the killing of CRPF personnel at Pampore as an act of 'frustration' on part of Pakistani terrorists several of whom were killed by Indian forces in past one year.
Four officers of the Border Security Force, including a Commanding Officer, were on Friday killed in an IED blast by suspected Maoists in Malkangiri district of Odisha. The BSF squad was targeted at around 1 pm in the Janbai area of the district, under Chitragonda police station area, 465 kms from Bhubaneswar. Odisha's jungles are a hotbed for Naxal activities as it touches the borders of two other states -- Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh -- making it a corridor for Maoists.
Chagala, the contract killer accused in the murder of Budhia's coach Biranchi Das, was picked up for interrogation after reaching Bhubaneswar on Thursday. He was arrested by the Bhopal police while appearing on a live interview with a private TV channel on April 22
A tribal girl was gangraped near the high-security Raj Bhavan in Bhubaneswar, barely a month after the gangrape of a local tourist near Konark Sun temple, the police said on Thursday.
West Bengal and Odisha have evacuated lakhs of people from vulnerable areas to safety as severe cyclonic storm 'Yaas' is nearing the coast and is expected to make landfall near Dhamra Port in Bhadrak district early on Wednesday morning.
All major markets, daily haats, shopping malls and roadside shops were closed in response to the call given by Rajdhani Byabasai Jibika Bancho Samiti, police said. Even fish and vegetable markets were closed in protest against the government's permission to Reliance Retail Limited for opening its outlets, they said.
Drones are being used for carrying out a host of tasks like surveillance to ensure that people are maintaining social distancing, spreading awareness about COVID-19 in densely populated areas, spraying disinfectants and checking people's temperature
Banerjee said the state is targeting to shift at least 10 lakh people to safer places in a bid to avoid any loss of life.
The tally of 114 includes two fatalities and 17 foreigners as well as 13 people who were discharged after they recovered from the infection.
An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit Myanmar, tremors of which shook the northeast, several parts of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and even Delhi and NCR on Wednesday.
'If we want to ensure this isn't a once-in-four-decade phenomenon, then we have to produce 1,800 players all the time, create infrastructure, so that we are constantly challenging at the top of the ladder.'
In New Delhi, Trinamool Congress MPs took out a protest march towards the PM's residence but were taken into police custody en route.
Commissioner of Police R P Sharma said they had come to stay in the hotel at about 9 pm on Monday but fled when they were asked to produce identity proof before being given rooms.
The national capital received heavy precipitation resulting in waterlogging on several roads and traffic jams at various intersections.
Nearly fifty armed Maoists entered a village and killed four people in Orissa's Rayagada district on Wednesday. Maoists entered a house in Pandratola village, approximately 350 kilometers from Bhubaneswar late on Wednesday night, and killed three people. Two other people were injured in the incident and were admitted to a hospital, and one of them later succumbed to his injuries.The Maoists reportedly killed these people on suspicion that they were acting as police informers.
Rejecting the demands for withdrawal of security forces and release of prisoners by Maoist-backed tribal agitators, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee on Tuesday night said the police have been asked to move to the detained Rajdhani Express to rescue the passengers."We can't just accept such demands like withdrawal of security forces and release of some prisoners," the chief minister told a press conference in Kolkata.
The bandh was called in response to the arrest of a Maoist last week.
A senior security official has claimed that the Maoists had carefully planned the detention of the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express and the five-hour hostage crisis on Tuesday.
With firing having erupted in West Midnapore district on Tuesday, Maoist leader Kishenji demanded security forces stop it as a condition for the release of two abducted drivers of Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani.
The Orissa assembly plunged into a crisis as the Opposition Congress occupied the podium demanding immediate resignation of the Speaker for his alleged involvement in the case. Minutes before the House commenced, Opposition members rushed to the podium thus preventing Deputy Speaker Prahallada Dora to conduct the business. The Speaker had on Wednesday made a statement describing the allegation levelled against him by the woman employee as 'false and baseless'.
Pump manufacturing company Kirloskar Brothers Ltd and Coal India on Friday are jointly moving 18 high-powered pumps to the mine, officials said.
Two persons were killed in Uttar Pradesh's Ballia district as strong winds and thunder showers hit several parts of the state. While one died in a tree fall incident the other was hit by lightning, the police said.
Modi was stated to have been held up at the place for nearly 15 minutes because of Mohsin's "actions". The officer allegedly checked PM's chopper in violation of norms.
A large number of Maoists have been killed and four policemen were missing in the continuing gunbattle between security forces and the militants, who killed 15 people on Friday, in the Ganjam-Kandhamal border area of Orissa, official sources said.
The migrants were ferried to their villages in sanitised buses arranged by the Jharkhand government to take them home after preliminary medical screening at the station, officials said.
With almost all opposition parties and several trade unions backing the 'Bharat Bandh' and many announcing parallel protests in support of the farmers, the Centre has issued an advisory directing all the states and Union Territories to tighten security and ensure COVID guidelines are followed.
Amid growing demands for his resignation, Kumar told the MHRD officials that efforts were being made to facilitate semester registration for 'willing' students.
Agitating farmer groups on Thursday held a four-hour nationwide 'rail roko' agitation with the railways saying there was negligible impact on services though some trains were stopped by officials at stations as a precautionary measure.
Child marathon runner Budhia Singh's former coach Biranchi Das was shot dead in Bhubaneshwar on Sunday. Das had been arrested and jailed for nearly a week in August 2007 on charges of physically torturing the minor boy. Further details are awaited.
Mishra said the ban had been imposed on Budhia's participation in the programme as he had been found medically unsuitable for undertaking such long-distance run or walk.
The curfew, clamped in the arson-hit town on Friday, would continue till Sunday, while the prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC were imposed in nearby Dhamnagar and Basudevpur as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of violence, a police official said.
Railways suspect that tampering of the track near Kuneru station led to the derailment of the train.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Thursday declared the spot where 12 tribals were killed in police firing at Kalinga Nagar as 'Veerbhumi'.
Manoj Das, who was suffering from a rheumatic heart ailment, had come to the six-day camp to get cured of the disease.
At least three persons died on Saturday after uprooted trees fells on them in Odisha ahead of Cyclone Phailin's landfall at Gopalpur.
The Committee of Administrators (CoA) has suggested the Supreme Court to take stern action against those named in the Justice Mudgal panel dossier, currently in a sealed envelope with the apex court.
Their victims was 8-year-old Prasanta Nahak from Ganjam district in Orissa.
J N Biswal, deputy general manager, sales, IISCO, said that his daughter Dipika Dipanjali, a student of Class X, was missing since the morning of January 31, when she went out for a walk near the house.
