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Operation X: It took only 15 minutes to execute Kasab
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A special inspector general of police in Maharashtra and 16 handpicked men oversaw Operation X leading to the death by hanging of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab on Wednesday. The process was quietly initiated shortly after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Kasab's mercy plea on November 5, official sources said.

The chosen team's mission was to hang and bury the 25-year-old Kasab in complete secrecy in Pune's Yerawada Central Jail, where he would be moved from Mumbai.

Once home minister Sushilkumar Shinde signed the file from the President's office on November 7 and sent it to the Maharashtra government the next day, the police team took charge.

Only a handful knew that Kasab would hang on November 21 morning.

These included Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh, earlier the Pune police chief, and Meeran Borwankar, who heads the Yerawada jail, and those at the helm in the state intelligence department and Mumbai CID.

Yerawada is one of the two jails in Maharashtra--the other being Nagpur Central Jail--where hanging facilities are available. Pune's proximity to Mumbai played a role. An expert hangman was summoned.

On November 12, Kasab had been told of his impending hanging by a jail staff in Mumbai. According to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, Kasab was quietly shifted from Mumbai to Pune on November 19.

He was taken on a special flight late at night to reach Pune early November 19 and whisked off to the Yerawada jail. He requested that his mother be informed, and indicated he had no last wish. He did not want to make a will or any final testament.

As state home minister R.R. Patil put it, after completing all legal niceties, Kasab was executed at 7.30am on Wednesday. Just 15 minutes later, the Operation X chief conveyed to the state home department that the task was "successfully completed". (IANS)

Nitish trashes "meaningless statements" by Lalu
Views ::109 Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday rubbished "meaningless statements" being made by his arch-rival and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad about performance of the NDA government and said that the latter has lost credibility to question others.

"Prasad is making meaningless statements against the NDA government out of frustration and desperation," he told reporters in a reply to a question.

"He has lost credibility and slipped out of the heart and mind of the people of Bihar so much so that he will find it difficult to woo the masses for political revival," Kumar said.

On the RJD supremo's prediction of an imminent divorce between the JD(U) and BJP, he advised the former to worry about himself.

On Prasad's charge that the law and order situation has deteriorated in Bihar during the NDA rule and the minorities were being subjected to atrocities, Kumar said that contrary to the former's claims, both the masses and the minorities were satisfied with the law and order situation.

"The law and order situation in Bihar is under total control," the chief minister said adding steps have been taken to maintain law and order and conduct scientific investigation in criminal cases.

The police department has been equipped with devices and police personnel given training to maintain the law and order situation and investigate the criminal cases in a scientific manner, he said.
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No special package given to Bihar: Nitish
Views ::116 Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that the UPA government has given no special package to Bihar to tide over economic backwardness and under-development and all funds have been provided to the state as per the plan provisions.

The centre has not given any special package to Bihar and the annual assistance of Rs 1000 crores under the 10th plan was as per the provisions of the Bihar Reorganisation Act, he told reporters.

All that the Centre did was to continue with Rs 1000 crore assistance under the 11th plan and has given an in-principle consent to continue the same in the 12th plan, Kumar said.

The central assistance to Bihar post its bifurcation was a permanent and legal arrangement, the CM said adding that the state government has demanded assistance of Rs 20,000 crores under the 12th plan for basic infrastructure projects, but the plan panel was yet to decide on the size of assistance.

The state government has also submitted a proposal to the centre for assistance of Rs 50,000 crores for various infrastructure projects with a hope that the same will be considered, he said.

On the consistent increase in the plan size of the state, he said it was achieved not due to the central assistance but the state government's efforts to generate internal sources and said that it has been decided to double the commercial and sales tax collection in the next three years.

On Odisha Chief Minister's Naveen Patnaik's charge that the Centre has granted additional assistance to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal to lure the ruling parties in these states to vote for UPA's presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee, Kumar parried the question and said that he has not seen a statement made by the former.

On Uttar Pradesh getting a package of Rs 90,000 crores from the Centre, he said the state government was not aware of the development and in case it was the decision of the central government, he said adding that we are not seeking any financial package, but demanding only special category status.
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Councillor held for attack on minister's cavalcade
Views ::113 Muzaffarpur: A local councillor was arrested on Monday in connection with the alleged attack on the cavalcade of Bihar Revenue and Land Reforms Minister Ramai Ram in April this year.

Acting on a complaint lodged by the minister's aide Shashi Ranjan, Gupteshwar Prasad Singh alias Mukesh was arrested from Malshahi Nawada village in the district, police said.

The minister's cavalcade was attacked on April 20 by Singh and his supporters. Meanwhile, irate locals gheraoed the police station for several hours demanding Singh's immediate release but were later pacified by the police officials.
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Pranab should visit Bihar first after becoming prez: Nitish
Views ::119 Patna: UPA Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee should consider visiting Bihar first after assuming office, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday.

"Mukherjee should consider a visit to Bihar - the land of the country's first president Dr Rajendra Prasad- as his first tour after assuming the office of the President," he told reporters here. On whether Mukherjee would visit the state to seek his support in the presidential poll scheduled for later this month, Kumar said he need not do so as his party JD(U) has already committed to supporting him.

On JD(U)'s stand on the Vice-Presidential elections in which the incumbent Hamid Ansari is speculated to be a UPA candidate, Kumar said his party has not discussed the issue. "JD(U) will deliberate on the Vice-Presidential polls in due course of time," he said.
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'Modi remarks on caste politics in Bihar aimed at RJD rule'
Views ::127 Patna: Seeking to play down Narendra Modi's remark that caste leaders had pushed Bihar into economic backwardness, the BJP on Tuesday said the Gujarat chief minister had referred to previous governments including the RJD regime and not to the current NDA dispensation.

"Modi did not make the remarks about the NDA government, but referred to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and earlier governments in Bihar," Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters here.

Prasad had brazenly indulged in caste politics at the cost of development during the entire three terms of the RJD- led rule in Bihar in contrast to development agendas of the NDA which enjoy support of both upper and backward castes, besides other sections of the society, he claimed.

"I have seen the CD of Modi's speech and his remarks are not aimed at the NDA government...The Gujarat Chief Minister made the remarks about caste politics apparently to warn some BJP leaders against playing out caste politics," the Bihar deputy chief minister said.

He blamed a section of the media for twisting the Gujarat Chief Minister's remarks with an apparent intention to create controversy as if the reference was intended at the NDA government headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Kumar and Modi have had a strained relations ever since the former did not allow the BJP leader to campaign in Bihar in 2009 general elections and a year later cancelled a dinner hosted for the visiting BJP leadership at the party's national executive in Patna which was attended by the Gujarat chief minister.
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'No problem if Centre gives special package to WB'
Views ::129 Patna: Bihar government has no problem if the Centre provides special package to West Bengal, but there should be no discrimination against Bihar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar said on Tuesday.

"Why should Bihar have any problem with any state getting special package from the Centre? He asked in reply to question whether the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was coercing the UPA government to announce special package in lieu of her support to the presidential candidate.

The Central government, however, should not be allowed to be blackmailed by anybody merely to stay in power, he said without taking Banerjee's name.

The Bihar government has no problem if West Bengal or any other state gets special package to tide over fiscal problems, Modi said, adding that at the same time the Centre should ensure that the Bihar's economic interests should not be compromised.

The Bihar Deputy Chief Minister urged the Centre to consider the state government's demand for assistance of Rs 4000 crore annually under the 12th five-year plan.

Modi lauded the RJD supremo Lalu Prasad for demanding three Central universities for Bihar and said that the latter should take up the matter with the Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal and the UPA government as he enjoys good rapport with them.

He said that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had talks with Sibal on the Central universities issue and hoped that an amicable solution could be worked out during the second round of discussion to be held shortly.
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Revenue clerk held for taking bribe
Views ::124 Patna: The vigilance sleuths on Tuesday nabbed a revenue clerk Umesh Prasad for taking a bribe of Rs 10,000 from a person at his office in Jogapatti circle in Bihar's Bagaha police district, an official said.

Acting on the complaint of one Nasrullah Ansari, the vigilance sleuths laid a trap and arrested Prasad when he was receiving the graft, the Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Vigilance, P K Thakur said.

The accused revenue officer had demanded bribe for mutation of landed property of the complainant, he said .

Cylinders explode at Ranveer Sena chief's �tehrvi�
Views ::144 Patna: At least 20 LPG cylinders exploded on Tuesday at a primary school in Bihar�s Khopira village where food was being cooked for the tehrvi of former Ranveer Sena chief Brahmeshwar Singh alias Mukhiya.

As per reports, 50 cylinders had been kept at the site and blasts are continuing. However, there are no reports of any one getting hurt in the incident.

It is believed that the food was being cooked for nearly 50,000 people, who were supposed to attend the feast on the completion of 13 days of Mukhiya�s death.

The Ranveer Sena chief was killed recently by unidentified gunmen. While Bihar police have arrested several suspects, the mystery has yet to be solved.
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111 children dead due to Acute Encephalitis Symdrome in Bihar
Views ::127 Patna: Altogether 111 children have died due to Acute Encephalitis Symdrome (AES) in Bihar since May and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has asked the union health secretary to send a central team to help in tackling the disease, state Health Minister Ashwani Chaube said on Tuesday.

Chaube, who was speaking to newsmen after a meeting with the chief minister, said the government will rush in a team of doctors along with ambulances and medicine from primary health centres and the districts to the affected districts of Gaya ,Muzaffarpur and Koshi region to treat the affected.

The government, he said, has decided to launch a campaign in the affected areas to create awareness to prevent the disease and ensure treatment of the affected children.

He lamented the absence of a laboratory in the state and said the state government had last year requested the Centre to set up one to expeditiously identify viral-related symptoms along the lines of the one in Pune.

Chaube said the chief minister has approved compensation of Rs 50000 to the kin of each victim from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

The provision for compensation for fever-related deaths would remain in place in future too, he added.

Kumar had said yesterday that the death of children due to AES has become a matter of grave concern and tackling the disease has proved to be a big challenge.
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Govt school headmaster beaten to death in Bihar
Views ::117 Patna: The headmaster of a government-run middle school was beaten to death by some people Monday in Bihar's Munger district, police officials said.

Ashok Kumar, headmaster of Bhadwakol middle school under the Haveli-Kharagpur police station in Munger, about 170 km from here, was beaten to death by some men, who allegedly demanded 'rangdari tax' from him for construction of the school building, police said.

The slain headmaster had lodged an FIR against three people for their extortion bid, police sid.

According to police, some powerful local men Monday morning visited the headmaster in the school and asked him to withdraw the case against them. But the headmaster refused to yield to their diktat. This angered them, and they first abused him and then thrashed him.

"The headmaster died on the spot and the accused fled," police said.

The headmaster's family has lodged a case and alleged that he was killed after he refused to pay 'rangdari tax' to those who attacked hin later Monday morning.

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JD-U, BJP MPs demand central university in Motihari
Views ::67 New Delhi: A delegation of JD-U and BJP MPs from Bihar on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded establishment of a central university in Motihari, where Mahatma Gandhi launched his Satyagraha against British rule.

"A delegation of MPs from JD-U and BJP today met the Prime Minister for setting up a (central) university at the place where Gandhiji staged his first Satyagraha," BJP MP from East Champaran Radha Mohan Singh told reporters outside Parliament.

He said the delegation comprising over 25 MPs from both the parties submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister in this regard.

In the memorandum, the MPs said the proposal to set up the university in Motihari was stuck out by Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal.

"The HRD Minister says there is no airport in (East Champaran) district but we want to bring to your notice that there are several places in the country where such institutions are located in districts from where the distance of airports is 150 km," it said.
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Bihar engineer arrested on terror charges
Views ::71 Patna: A week after a 35-year-old engineer, who hails from a village in Bihar's Darbhanga district, was arrested in Saudi Arabia for alleged terror links in India, his family members and villagers are shocked and still cannot believe it.

Fasih Mehmood, an engineer working in Saudi Arabia for the last five years, was arrested from Jubail in Dammam May 14 by Saudi police following a request from Indian authorities and reportedly deported to India.

"We have no information till date about his whereabouts after he was arrested in Saudi Arabia. The Indian government is yet to officially inform us," said Fasih's father, Dr. Firoz Ahmad, who is in charge of the Benipatti primary health centre in Madhubani district.

Fasih's mother is a school teacher in Darbhanga.

Fasih's wife Nikhat Parween said she had sent an email to the External Affairs Ministry to know about her husband. "I had requested the Ministry to inform me about my husband," she said.

Parween, who returned to Patna from Saudi Arabia after her husband's arrest, is currently staying with her parents here.

Ahmad said that neither Saudi Arabia nor the Indian government had informed them about Fasih's arrest. "We are at God's mercy as the family is yet to get a word from the concerned authorities," he said.

Fasih, a resident of Barh Saaila village in Darbhanga, about 200 km from here, is seen as a simple family man with no record of any suspected activities.

"Fasih was a good student, a simple and gentle man. It is difficult to suspect his involvement in any other thing," Zafar Ahmad, a villager, said. He said that there was no record that Fasih was ever involved in anything wrong till date.

Mohammed Iqbal, another villager, said that Fasih was never involved in any radical activities. "He used to visit the village and spend time with family and friends. Fasih was also a good human being," he said.

Fasih was working with Eram Engineering Corporation in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, after obtaining his B Tech from an engineering college at Bhatkal in Karnataka.

Villagers in Barh Saaila are angry over Fasih's arrest in Saudi Arabia as he is the fourth person hailing from the village to be arrested for suspected terror links.

Early this month, Kafil Akhtar was arrested by Karnataka Police without informing Bihar Police. The move prompted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to describe it as a violation of the rule of law.
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Charges framed against Sadhu Yadav
Views ::72 Patna: A local court on Monday framed charges against Sadhu Yadav, ex-mp and brother-in-law of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, in connection with a case charging him with indulging in scuffle and obstructing official work by storming the Transport department office here in 2001.

First Class Judicial Magistrate Rajiv Ranjan framed the charges against Sadhu Yadav under Sections 448, 553, 506 and 347 of Indian Pendal Code.

The charges against Sadhu Yadav are storming the office of the then Transport Commissioner N K Sinha on January 29, 2001 under Shastri Nagar police station here and engaging in a clash and disrupting official duty to press for transfer of an official of his choice.

Sadhu Yadav is already on bail in the case in which charge was filed against him in the court on March 13, 2001.

Sadhu Yadav has switched over to the Congress from the RJD after reported differences he had with the RJD supremo for denying him a party ticket to contest Lok Sabha poll nine years ago.
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Jehanabad: 6 cops injured in stone throwing
Views ::101 Jehanabad: Six policemen were injured when angry students threw stones at them to protest a truck hitting a student here in Bihar's Jehanabad district today, police said.

A student going to a coaching centre was injured when a truck hit him in the main market area here this morning, sources said.

The incident triggered protest by students who blocked the high way here, sources said.

As police tried to persuade them to lift the blocked, the students threw stones in which six policemen were injured.

Police later lobbed tear gas shells to control the situation, sources said. Angry students also damage a police jeep during the protest.
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Rail services during 'Bihar bandh' disrupted
Views ::76 Patna: CPI(M-L) activists on Thursday squatted on the railway tracks in some districts to disrupt train movements during the 24-hour 'Bihar-Bandh' called by them demanding a CBI probe into the murder of Sonhathu panchayat mukhiya Devendra Kumar Singh alias Chhotu Jaiswal.

CPI (M-L) cadres carrying banners, posters and placards agitated on the railway tracks to disrupt movement of trains in Aurangabad, Bhojpur, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Patna and Jehanabad districts, official reports said.

The protesting CPI(M-L) activists also raised slogans at several railway stations across the state demanding immediate arrest of the killers of the mukhiya and CBI probe into the mukhiya murder case and the subsequent police lathicharge on the protesters in Aurangbadbad district.

However, East Central Railway (ECR) Public Relations Officer (PRO) Neeraj Ambhastha claimed that there was no impact of the CPI(M-L) stir on the railway services and the trains were plying as usual.

A strong crowd of CPI(M-L) leaders, workers and sympathisers led by its national general secretary Deepankar Bhattacharya took out a protest march in the state capital and blocked the vehicular traffic on the busy Dakbunglow roundabout during the bandh.

On the Aurangabad incidents the CPI(M-L) leader demanded the arrest of the killers of the mukhiya and action against the district magistrate and the superintendent of police, besides CBI probe in the murder case and the police lathicharge on the protesters earlier this month.

In Jehanabad district, the CPI(M-L) workers stopped the Patna-Gaya Passenger tran and Dehri-Gaya intercity express for sometimes, official sources said.

The agitators blocked road on the Station chowk and Arwal crossing on the NH-83 and threw stones on the passing vehicles, damaging some vehicles, they said.. Reports from Bhojpur district say that the protesting CPI(M-L) activists took out a rally in Ara town and also stopped Buxur-Patna Sahib passenger train at the railway station.

In Samastipur district, the protesters marched towards the railway station where they stopped movement of New Delhi-bound Bihar Sampark Kranti Express, Barauni-New Delhi Vaishali Express, official reports said.

A report from Darbhanga said that the CPI(M-L) activists stopped movement of Darbhanga-Patna Express, Darbhanga-New Delhi Sampark Kranti Express at Laheriasarai railway station, while other protesters formed a human chain near Darbhanga tower and blocked road traffic.

Similar agitations were reported from Gaya and Gopalganj districts, according to reports.

Meanwhile, the CPI (M-L) office secretary Kumar Parvez claimed that the bandh was total and it received spontaneous and total support from the people throughout Bihar.
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Accused in IPS officer's kin's murder found dead
Views ::84 Patna: A man, named in the FIR in the IPS officer Ashok Kumar Gupta's cousin Saket Kumar murder case four days ago, was found dead on railway tracks near Bahadurpur railway crossing.

The police recovered the body of Prem Singh, the accused in the murder case, late last night, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), City, Sushil Kumar said.

Singh, who runs a bear shop in the Gaighat locality did not return home last night and his family members informed the police about his body lying by the railway tracks, he said.

There were cut marks on his head and legs, Kumar said.

The body has been sent for a post-mortem and the cause of death would be ascertained only after the autopsy report was available, he said.

Kumar, a liqour trader and kin of the Bihar police housing construction corporation director Ashok Kumar Gupta, was shot dead outside the gate of Kumhrar park three days ago.
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CPI(M-L) to write to HRC about police atrocities
Views ::75 Aurangbad: The CPI(M-L) will write to the NHRC to complain about alleged police atrocities on political activists in Bihar's Aurangabad district recently while they were demanding a CBI probe into the Sonhathu Panchayat mukhiya Devendra Prasad Singh alias Chhotu Jaiswal murder case in March this year.

"I will write a letter to the NHRC to complain about the police atrocities on the political activists in Aurangabad town last week while they were demanding a CBI probe into the mukhiya murder case," CPI(M-L) general secretary Deepankar Bhattacharya told reporters here.

The CPI(M-L) leader said that his party has given a call for 'Bihar bandh' tomorrow to protest the mukhiya murder case as well as the police atrocities on the protesters and will press for a CBI probe in the two incidents.

Bhattacharya also met the ex-CPI(M-L) MLA Rajaram Singh Singh and 29 others lodged in a jail in Aurangabad since their arrest on May two last by the police in connection with agitation to protest the mukhiya's murder on March 29 last.
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