Blast hits Kanpur

At least six people were injured in a crude bomb blast in Kanpur on Tuesday evening. A blast has been reported from the city of Kanpur on Tuesday evening, when a bomb went off in the Bajaria area of Colonelganj police station. The device was reportedly placed on a rented bicycle. The blast took off at around 7 pm. Reports suggest 6 people have been injured, including a woman and two children. The area- situated in the centre of the city- is highly crowded and minority dominated. Several cracker manufacturing units are located here. It is a densely populated area, packed with slums in narrow lanes. The nature of the explosive is not confirmed, but is suspected to be of crude variant. The blast was a low-intensity one. Official details are awaited. The entire city of Kanpur has been put on high-alert, with the site being cordoned-off. The blast occurred at 6.30 PM this evening. Two of the injured are said to be critical. All of them have been admitted to a city hospital. According to police, the crude bomb was planted on a cycle. The police refused to term this blast as a terror attack and said it could be the handiwork of some anti-social elements. May be possible that after impossing the section 144 by Mayawati in Rai Barely frustrated congress workors are involved in this blast.

Privious blast in Kanpur was on August 24: Bomb making materials found from the spot Two persons were killed in an explosion in a house in the Rajeev Nagar area on Sunday afternoon. The police recovered 3 kg lead oxide, 500 g red lead, 1 kg potassium nitrate, 11 countrymade grenades, several bomb pins, seven timers and batteries from the spot. The deceased have been identified as Rajeev Mishra and Bhupinder Singh. While Rajeev was the son of S S Mishra, the landlord of the house, Bhupinder was a resident of Shastri Nagar. Mishra, a retired Kanpur Electric Supply Company employee, lives in the nearby Nankari village. He had rented a few rooms of his house to several students. Rajeev’s occupied the room in which the blast took place. As he worked in Lucknow, he used to visit the place on Sundays. According to the police, while Bhupinder died on the spot, Rajeev died on his way to hospital. Till last reports came in, the police were conducting a search in Rajeev’s residence. Bhupinder’s house was found locked. Manvendra Singh Chauhan, one of the students, said: “While everybody knew Rajeev, we saw Bhupinder for the first time on Sunday.” IG (Kanpur Zone) S N Singh claimed either low intensity chemical or countrymade bombs caused the explosion. “The recovery shows that a massive explosion was on the cards. We are trying to find the reason behind Bhupinder’s visit to the house on Sunday,” he said. According to a senior police officer, the material found could have been used for several explosions. Of the seven timers recovered, two were attached with batteries with the help of wires. The countrymade hand grenades recovered were similar to those used by the defence forces.

 

Sonia cancels Rae Bareli rally

Sonia cancels Rae Bareli rally after BSP government muscle-flexing

Lucknow, Oct 13 (IANS) Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has cancelled her plans to address a rally and perform a religious ceremony for a rail coach factory in her Rae Bareli constituency Tuesday after the Uttar Pradesh government imposed prohibitory orders in the area late Monday, a party spokesperson said. Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh told IANS that ‘in view of Chief Minister Mayawati’s directions to disallow the rally, our party president Sonia Gandhi has cancelled her plans to address a rally at Lalganj in Rae Bareli’. The move follows the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government imposing prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in Rae Bareli that prevents the gathering of more than five people in the area. The state government acted swiftly after the Allahabad High Court ordered status quo on a piece of land in Lalganj where Gandhi was to perform Bhoomi Poojan for a rail coach factory. Additional District Magistrate D.L. Verma, in a statement, said the state government, ‘using its discretionary powers, has banned any kind of gathering, rally or public address’ in Rae Bareli with immediate effect. According to the UPCC spokesperson, the Congress chief would, however, visit Lalganj to inspect the Lifeline Express Train, a health camp on wheels run by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation to look after the health needs of people in her constituency. She would also visit some areas of her constituency and meet party workers. However, the proposed Bhoomi Poojan would not be held, Singh said. The Uttar Pradesh government had Saturday night taken back the 400 acres it had allotted to the Indian Railways for the project. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court Monday ordered status quo on the land while hearing a writ of Northern Railway (NR) and a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) of villagers of Rae Bareli. The court has given a week’s time to the state government to file a counter affidavit. The Northern Railway (NR) moved the high court seeking a stay on the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to withdraw the land. Villagers and farmers of Lalganj also filed a PIL stating that the move of the state government would deprive the region of better development and job opportunities. A division bench comprising Justice Pradeep Kant and Shabiul Hasnain, while ordering that status quo be maintained, listed the matter for further hearing Oct 22. ‘The court has given a week’s time to the state government to file a counter affidavit and 24 hours to the petitioners thereafter to file a rejoinder,’ Mohammad Arif Khan, the counsel of the petitioners, told reporters after the hearing. Earlier, the court also summoned records related to the land and made a specific query regarding cancelling the allotment without giving proper opportunity to the petitioners. Meanwhile, the state government, through its counsel, told the court that it will not take back possession of the land from the railway. The railway, a few months ago, had acquired the land after paying compensation of Rs.85 million (Rs.8.5 crore), which the state government Sunday announced it would return. ‘The government also stated that it will not initiate proceedings of allotting the land to anyone else or initiate any construction work on the same,’ Khan added.

 

Breaking News

Mayawati has cancelled the allotment of land for a railway coach factory in Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareli, just three days before the Congress chief was scheduled to attend a ceremony at the site to mark the beginning of construction. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s decision is being seen by state Congress leaders as a move targeted at Sonia Gandhi. She is believed to have been unhappy with a rally Sonia Gandhi held last month in Dadri against land acquisition from farmers in Badalpur, Mayawati’s village. Considered a dream project of the Congress chief, the rail factory with an investment of Rs 1,689.25 crore was expected to provide employment to at least 10,000 people from the area. The move marks a new low in the relationship between Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress-led coalition at the Centre, which she had supported from outside till early this year. It is expected to raise the temperature in the run-up to the general elections next year. But state government officials said Mayawati’s order on Saturday canceling the allotment of 189.25 hectare near Lalganj had everything to do with opposition from villagers. Principal Secretary (Information) Vijay Shankar Pandey told reporters on Sunday that the government’s decision was based on the district magistrate’s report about resentment among farmers over the acquisition of land. The government had allotted the land on May 19 this year. Rae Bareli district magistrate Santosh Srivastava in his October 10 report to the state government said that “land acquisition could lead to law and order problems in Rae Bareli”, Pandey said. The DM said the proposed factory required nearly 700 acre land and farmers were afraid that their land might be acquired for the purpose. Pandey added that instructions had been issued for the arrangement of alternative land for the project. “As of now there is no land for the project,” Pandey said. Reacting sharply, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh said: “The decision had once again demonstrated that the BSP government was against development of the state.” Local Congress leaders said though Sonia Gandhi won’t have the Bhoomi Pujan of the rail project to attend, she might still address a scheduled rally at Lalganj on October 14. “Sonia Gandhi’s programme is still on. It may take place in some form or the other,” said Kishori Lal Sharma, a party leader making preparations for the rally. UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi said people of Dehar, Sohawal and Bannamau villages had given their consent in writing for the acquisition and that the “state government’s move will stall development”. She said the state government had not given the go-ahead to three other projects being set up in Rae Bareli.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said India had a negative approach during the drawn first Test on Monday. “We were the only ones trying to take the game forward,” said Ponting after India finished on 177-4 having been set an unlikely winning target of 299. “We played aggressive cricket. I am not surprised by the way they played, the Indian team play a lot of drawn games. We dominated this Test match.” The sides now head to Mohali for the second Test, which starts on Friday. Ponting said he went into the final day in Bangalore expecting “a really good contest”. “We got some extra runs we thought might have needed. We gave it our best shot with the ball but we just didn’t create enough opportunities,” he added. “We could not win it at the end, but it was a pretty good start to the series for us.” India paceman Zaheer Khan, who was man-of-the-match after claiming five wickets in the tourists’ first innings and also scoring an unbeaten 57, said Australia’s failure to force victory meant they would be under more pressure in the rest of the series. “They know they can’t take our 20 wickets. They couldn’t get me and Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) out, what else do you want? They are under pressure, we know that,” he said. “On a fifth day wicket their spinners couldn’t do us any harm. That tells everyone what their spin attack is all about. “Even their pacers, they didn’t look like getting a wicket, especially on the fifth day on a wicket like this.”

– By Sagar Satapathy, Editor-in-Chief (Breaking News online) There has been a huge hue and cry over the financial health of ICICI Bank during the recent market meltdown. The ICICI Bank suffered huge losses, causing panic among the investors. But everyone forgot that ICICI Bank remains a big power in the banking sector and it has enough money to overcome any temporary crisis. The rumours, speculations and all permutations and combinations proved wrong, as the ICICI Bank led the market surge yesterday. Only a few days ago, situation was so bad that ICICI Bank MD and CEO KV Kamath, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the RBI had to step in to assure the investors of ICICI Bank’s stability and growth. It is not known whether some vested interests played the spoilsport by indulging in a malicious campaign against the ICICI Bank. But the bank proved anyone wrong and emerged as a strong force to reckon with in the banking industry. ICICI Bank not only managed to generate trust and confidence among its investors, but led the way in market surge. As a result, other banks such as HDFC Bank, SBI and others also witnessed good results. The ICICI Prulife from ICICI Prudential still remains a big hit among the investors. The ICICI Prulife is rated high among other insurance and unit-linked products. It has been a huge relief to see ICICI Bank on top again. Millions of investors in India can now feel safe and secure. Their money should be always safe with ICICI Bank. There is no doubt about this.

Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways have entered into a code sharing alliance. The two airliners signed a pact for common fuel management, ground handling, network rationalisation and cross-crew use. They will also work together on cross-sales and staff training. The new alliance between Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines has much significance, as it does not have any equity implication.

The National Integration Council (NIC) meeting was dominated by the issues such as terrorism and anti-Christian violence. While the UPA leaders tried to focus only on anti-Christian violence and Communalism, the BJP-led NDA tried to take a swipe at the UPA government on the issue of rising terror activities in the country. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh expressed deep regret and anguish over the communal violence in Assam, Orissa and Karnataka. The NIC adopted a resolution condemning all acts of violence and terrorism and resolved to deal with such activities firmly. Gujarat CM Narendra Modi stole the show by taking the UPA government into task on the issue of terrorism. The BJP CMs demanded a tough terror law, which was rejected by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. On the expected lines, Samajwadi Party, CPI and CPM warned against targeting the Muslim community as terrorists. The Prime Minister also supported their views. The NIC meet also witnessed a war-of-words between Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. Naveen Patnaik refuted all charges against his government and revealed that Centre had delayed sending forces to tackle the communal violence. Later, he urged everyone to forget all political difference and work together towards the growth and development of all sections of the society. The NIC, which met after a gap of 3 years, is comprised of 146 members including all Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, leaders of national and regional political parties and eminent personalities. Senior BJPO leader, former Deputy PM and leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, LK Advani, who was invited as #134 to the NIC meet, did not attend, taking it as an insult to his stature. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Jaswant Singh was also not invited to the NIC meet.

Even as the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court ordered a stay on the cancellation of land allotment for Sonia Gandhi’s dream Rail Coach Factory in Rae Bareli, Mayawati sprung another surprise by imposing Section 144 in Rae Bareli on the eve of Sonia Gandhi’s rally. The government has denied permission for the rally citing law and order problem. The latest development could lead to a bitter face-off between Maywati and Sonia Gandhi. Mayawati took this decition after some congress minister supports the terrorist. And may be possible that sonia will announce some fund/relief for terrorists. So Mayawati impossess Section 144 in Rae Bareli. As we know that Arjun Singh, Amar singh Supports the terrorist and blam on Delhi Police and ignore the death of mohan chand sharma ( who died in fighiting with terrorist in jamiya nagar). We are very happy and with Mayawati for imposing Section 144 in Rae Bareli. Mayawati and Narendra Modi only two breave leaders in India rest of all are bharwa(hijra).

Paul Krugman, a Professor at Princeton University, United States, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics. Paul Krugman is an Op-Ed columnist for New York Times. Mr. Paul Krugman received the Nobel Prize for Economics for his commendable work on international trade and economic geography. Paul Krugman developed models that explained observed patters of trade between the countries. He also explained what goods are produced where and why. Paul Krugman’s theories explained why worldwide trade is dominated by a few countries that have similar policies and why some countries import the same goods they export.

 

Master mind: Delhi Blast

Praveen Swami profiled Abdul Subhan Qureshi, the Indian Mujahideen’s bomb-maker, in The Hindu newspaper. Reproduced without permission of The Hindu (I am Really sorry). Less than forty eight hours before over thirty bombs tore Ahmedabad apart in July, Abdul Subhan Usman Qureshi caught an overnight train to Mumbai — and disappeared. Police forces across India, backed by the Intelligence Bureau, have made the hunt for the short, thin built man who the Ahmedabad bombers knew by the code-name ‘Kasim’, their top priority. Based on the interrogation of Shahbaz Husain, a Lucknow businessman alleged to have led the cell responsible for a string of urban bombings carried out by a Students Islamic Movement of India front organisation calling itself the Indian Mujahideen, investigators are now certain that Qureshi trained the bomb-makers who fabricated the bombs used in the terror offensive. Qureshi, police believe, was also the ‘al-Arbi’ who signed e-mail manifestos issued by the Indian Mujahideen after each bombing — a finding supported by forensic detectives, who have determined that the rounded-‘A’ which ‘al-Arabi’ used to sign the documents matches the rendering of the same character in his personal correspondence. Against the grain The story of SIMI’s top bomb-maker sits ill with the narrative often used to explain why Islamist terrorism has grown in India. Qureshi studied at a secular school, not a seminary. He, unlike many inner-city Muslims, enjoyed access to both education and economic opportunity. Most important, Qureshi’s political radicalisation seems not to have been connected to the win poles that marked the growth the jihad in India, the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the 2002 communal pogrom in Gujarat. Like many first-generation working-class migrants to Mumbai, Qureshi’s parents — who hailed from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh — took education seriously. Qureshi graduated from the Antonio DeSouza High School, a church-run institution which caters to children from all major religious communities in 1988, securing a more-than-reasonable secondary school certificate average of 76.6 per cent. Interestingly, Qureshi’s parents offered all their children access to educational opportunity — not just, as is common among religious conservatives, the boys. Qureshi’s sisters, Asma and Safia, have Masters of Arts degrees; none of his three brothers, who also well-educated, appear to have been drawn to SIMI or other Islamist groups. In the autumn of 1992 — months before Mumbai was hit by a murderous Shiv Sena-led communal pogrom which followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid — Qureshi began studies at the Bharatiya Vidyapeeth in Navi Mumbai. Neither the communal pogrom, nor the serial bombings which followed them, appear to have directly touched Qureshi’s life. In 1995, he obtained a diploma in industrial electronics, and landed a part-time job at String Computers in Mazgaon (northcentral Mumbai). Later, in 1996, he went on to earn a specialised software maintenance qualification from the CMS Institute in Marol (northwest Mumbai). Armed with these qualifications, Qureshi had little difficulty finding work. He joined Radical Solutions, an independent computer firm operating out of the upmarket Fort area in south Mumbai in November, 1996, on a starting salary of Rs 2,450 per month. By the accounts of his co-workers, Qureshi was an exceptional worker — an assessment that is borne out by his resume. Just three years into his professional life, Qureshi succeeded in quadrupling his pay. He handled several major independent projects, including an intranet implementation for Bharat Petro-Chemicals carried out by Wipro in 1999, and then landed a job with computer major Datamatics. But then, Qureshi suddenly decided to leave in his job. In his March 26, 2001, letter, he offered the firm only ‘wish to inform you,’ the letter read, ‘that I have decided to devote one complete year to pursue religious and spiritual matters.’ Qureshi’s friends and family claim to have no knowledge of what led him to make the decision. His family claims not to have met since SIMI was proscribed later that year. This seems improbable: Qureshi’s youngest child, with his wife Aafia, is, after all, just two-and-a-half years old. A career in terror Mumbai police investigators have begun to reconstruct Qureshi’s career in terror. No one is certain just how he was recruited, but by 1998, Qureshi appears to have been a committed SIMI activist. He was charged, that year, with defacing public property, by pasting SIMI posters. Later, he went on to edit one of SIMI’s house-magazines, Islamic Voice, from New Delhi. Police sources told The Hindu that Qureshi participated in SIMI conference in October, 1999. Sheikh Yasin, the head of the Palestinian Hamas and the Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islamic chief Qazi Husain Ahmad, were among those who delivered speeches, through telephone links. Seven-year-old Gulrez Siddiqui was reported to have been trotted out in front of the estimated 20,000-strong crowd to read out this couplet: ‘Islam ka ghazi, butshikan, Mera sher, Osama bin Laden (Warrior for Islam, destroyer of idols/My lion, Osama bin Laden).’ SIMI’s growing links with the global jihadist movement became increasingly clear in the months and years that followed. In January, 2000, for example, police in West Bengal arrested Chinese national Abdul Rahman just after he crossed the Bahirhat border with Bangaldesh. Investigators learned that Rahman, who had escaped from a prison in China’s Xinjiang region where he had been serving time for the murder of a police officer, had been brought to India to train Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives. His handlers Aziz-ul-Haq and Nazrul Islam were both SIMI members. Later, in May, 2001, eight SIMI members involved in an abortive plot to bomb the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s headquarters in Nagpur were found to have trained with the Hizb ul-Mujahideen in Jammu and Kashmir. By the time of SIMI’s 1999 Aurangabad convention, which Qureshi is believed to have helped organise, many of the speeches delivered by delegates were frankly inflammatory. “Islam is our nation, not India,” thundered Mohammad Amir Shakeel Ahmad, one of over a dozen SIMI-linked Lashkar operatives arrested in 2005 for smuggling in military-grade explosives and assault rifles for a planned series of attacks in Gujarat. Among those listening to the speech was Mohammad Azam Ghauri, one of the co-founders of the Lashkar’s India operations. Ghauri, some SIMI members present in Aurangabad say, was offered SIMI’s leadership, but refused. Qureshi was, investigators say, one of the principal organisers of SIMI’s last public conference in 2001. SIMI leaders told the estimated 25,000 followers who attended the conference that the time had come for Indian Muslims to launch an armed jihad which would have the establishment of a caliphate at its final aim. In the wake of the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York in September 2001, SIMI activists organised demonstrations attacking the United States of America for being an ‘enemy of Islam.’ SIMI literature hailed Osama as a ‘true mujahid (Islamic warrior‘ and celebrated the demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban. Muslims were exhorted to ‘trample the infidels.’ Finding Qureshi — as well as figures like Qayamuddin Kapadia, the missing Vadodara based computer-graphics artist who police believe led the SIMI cell which targeted Surat(Kapadia has since been arrested) — could prove key to preventing the next big terror bombings. But the threat will not end with his arrest. Investigations of other SIMI-linked terror cells have thrown up evidence which suggests Qureshi trained several hundred recent recruits to the Islamist group’s terror cells, at camps held across India from 2007 onwards. India, it seems probable, will be compelled to live with this threat for many years to come.