Not content with bringing home sporting laurels, one of India's most accomplished shooters Jitu Rai has taken to serving the nation as a newly-promoted Subedar Major in the Indian Army in Manipur.
In a climbdown, Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, spearheading an indefinite bandh in Darjeeling hills for the last 10 days to demand Gorkhaland state, on Mondy said it would not use force to enforce the shutdown but a 'janata curfew' would be held as announced from Tuesday.
Indian boxer L Devendro Singh (49kg) advanced to the quarter-finals with a hard-fought victory but reigning Asian champion Shiva Thapa was sent packing in the 56kg category, at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
After blue-eyed Pakistani chaiwala Arshad Khan took the Internet by storm, social media users are now raving over photographs of a Nepali tarkariwali (a vegetable seller).
Going back on its call for an indefinite shut down in Darjeeling in view of the Eid festival, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Thursday announced a four-day bandh from Saturday to demand a separate Gorkhaland.
Police fired teargas shells and used batons to disperse the crowd.
The notion that the BJP gained its increased tally by wiping out the Left parties and the Congress is completely misleading. Equally misleading is the belief that the TMC held its ground in all its existing seats. A little more than a fifth of the seats Mamata Banerjee's party had won in 2016 was lost to the BJP this time.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted that Darjeeling Hills would remain part of West Bengal, even as a section of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters raised slogans demanding a separate state, during the inauguration of the North Bengal Festival. "Let us remain together. Darjeeling is part of Bengal and we will remain together," Banerjee said.
Once a reviled practice in the state, both the parties seem to have endorsed a record number of turncoats this time -- triggering a wave of discontentment among their loyalists.
An army jawan was killed and two others seriously injured when a powerful bomb, allegedly planted by insurgents, exploded in Manipur's interior Churachandpur district bordering Myanmar and Mizoram on Tuesday morning.
Modi, Shah and Nadda have created a strategy to boost the BJP and the government's image.
Gorkhaland supporters torched a police outpost, a toytrain station and clashed with the police at two places.
In a blunt message to the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha demand, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday ruled any division of West Bengal.
With eight more people on Sunday succumbing to injuries, the toll in the wooden footbridge collapse in West Bengal's Darjeeling district rose to 32. More than 100 people were injured in the mishap.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha Thursday asked the government to consider its demand for a Gorkhaland state if it takes into consideration creation of a separate Telangana.
Normal life was disrupted for the second day on Tuesday due to the 72-hour bandh called in the Darjeeling hills by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to demand Gorkhaland.
In a sign of political bonhomie with Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday announced withdrawal of all 17 party candidates for the coming Gorkhaland Territorial Administration election.
The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday swept the municipal polls in Bengal, capturing four of seven civic bodies and breaking the 10-year-old hold of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in the hills.
The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, which came into being earlier this month, is a 'preparation' for a separate Gorkhaland state which would come into being soon, GTA chief Bimal Gurung has said.
'Manmohan Singh's fond hope of avoiding conflict over territory by 'making borders irrelevant' is increasingly difficult to realise in a world where institutional restraints on aggression are weakening and the new game in town is unalloyed power play,' notes T N Ninan.
Twenty Indian soldiers posted in border areas of the country, most of them in Jammu and Kashmir, have gone missing from 1996 to 2010, according to an RTI reply.
GJM president Bimal Gurung has been holding meetings in Darjeeling district claiming that none could resist the formation of Gorkhaland, while urging partymen in the plains in the Dooars to ensure that the government assessment team returned convinced that people there area wanted to be under the new hill council.
The historic tripartite agreement for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) was on Monday signed to resolve the vexed Darjeeling problem amidst protests and bandhs in the Terai and Dooars areas.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday complimented West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung for making the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration agreement possible.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she will never agree to a division of the state even as the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha insisted that it has not given up its demand for separate Gorkhaland.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Monday demanded Rs 1,000 crore from the Centre for reconstruction work in Kalimpong and other areas of Darjeeling hills affected by the September 18 earthquake.
In an interview with CNN-IBN, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee spoke on a range of issues including her party's tiffs with the United Progressive Alliance, her six-month rule in the state and her plans to tackle Maoism.
A day after the signing of the tripartite agreement on Darjeeling, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung on Tuesday said its original demand for Gorkhaland still stands.
Gen Naravane's visit to Nepal from November 4-6 is largely aimed at resetting bilateral ties that came under severe strain following a bitter border row between the two countries.
At least ten people were killed and 50 injured when an old wooden footbridge over a spring gave way when a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha meeting was going on near Bijanbari, nearly 30 km away from Darjeeling, on Saturday evening. Darjeeling District Magistrate Soumitra Mohan said ten persons were killed and several others were injured in the mishap. The bridge, which had been weakened by the September 18 earthquake, gave way when a large number of people gathered on it.
The team of 21 Rashtriya Rifles had entered the house of a civilian to prevent a hostage situation when they came under attack from the terrorists who had already reached there. While the four army personnel and the police Sub Inspector lost their lives in the encounter, the civilians trapped in the house were safely evacuated.
The army was being deployed in violence-hit areas of Darjeeling district after 2 persons were killed on Tuesday when the police opened fire to stop Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters from taking out a march in adjacent Jalpaiguri district defying prohibitory orders, sparking arson by GJM workers who torched government vehicles and offices.
'With my wooden leg, I was determined to prove to the army as well as to the world, that I could do as well, if not better, than a two-legged person, says War Hero Major General Ian Cardozo (retd).
Ethnic divisions are likely to dominate elections in West Bengal's Dooars region, which has 12 assembly seats, with the choice of the adivasi and Nepalese-origin electorate likely to be a deciding factor.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Friday said the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, the new hill council to run the administration in the Darjeeling hills, is a step towards achievement of Gorkhaland, an indication that they are not going back on their demand for a separate state.
In a strong message to the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that West Bengal and Darjeeling were inseparable.
The first month of the new Mamata Banerjee ministry in West Bengal saw fast paced progress on two contentious issues -- the return of land to unwilling farmers of Singur and setting aside of the Gorkhaland demand for a bipartite agreement on Darjeeling.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Tuesday put aside its demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland and agreed to a new hill council with more autonomy in a bipartite agreement signed with the West Bengal government, signalling an end of the 15-year-old movement in Darjeeling.
Gorkha Janamukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung has warned that any attempt to arrest him in connection with the ongoing agitation in Darjeeling hills will unleash a spate of violence there and the West Bengal government will be responsible for the consequences.
Normal life was hit for the third day in Darjeeling Hills on Friday in response to the indefinite bandh called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha to protest police firing at Sipchu in Jalpaiguri district that left two persons dead.
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