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| Naxal beheaded a Jharkhand police officer |
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Maoists have beheaded Jharkhand police inspector Francis Induwar, who had been kidnapped by the ultras a week back reportedly demanding release of three arrested Naxalites including Kobad Ghandy in exchange for the officer, an act termed as unacceptable by the Centre today. The body along with the severed head of 37-year-old Induwar, who worked in intelligence wing of the state police, was found near Raisha Ghati under Namkom police station area, about 12 km from here, Superintendent of Police (Ranchi Rural), Hemant Toppo, said. Induwar, who is survived by his wife and three sons, had been kidnapped on September 30 by the Maoists from Hembrom Bazaar in Khunti district, about 70 km from here. The Maoists later reportedly demanded release of three rebels -- Ghandy, Chhatardhar Mahato and Bhushan Yadav -- in exchange for the officer. PTI / 06 Oct. 09 A Jharkhand police officer, who had been abducted by Maoist guerrillas and was sought to be swapped for three of their leaders, including Kobad Ghandy, was found with his throat slit on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway Tuesday morning. Francis Induwar, who worked as an intelligence official in the Special Branch, had been kidnapped five days ago. The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) left a pamphlet claiming the killing, a police official said. "Francis has been awarded death to protest the police repression," stated the pamphlet by the outlawed group. "The body of the official was found near Taimara valley situated on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway on Tuesday morning. The body has been identified and sent for postmortem. Maoists killed him by slitting his throat," said R K Mallik, the deputy inspector general of police, Ranchi range. "This is an act of cowardice of Maoist rebels who killed a police officer who was posted in the Specials Branch," Mallik said. Indwar was abducted September 30 evening from the Hembrum market in Khuti district, about 65 km from here, where he had gone to collect information from a contact. On Saturday, a person claiming to be 'Samarji', secretary of the Maoist South Chotanagpur Committee of Jharkhand, put forward the conditions for releasing Induwar. "The abducted police inspector of intelligence department is in our possession. He is safe. He will be released after the arrested leaders - Kobad Ghandy, Chatradhar Mahto and Bhushan Yadav - are released," local newspapers had quoted Samarji as saying. "Do not torture relatives of Kundan Pahan and other people, otherwise we will abduct family members of government officials," it went on to say. Police suspect the role of the Kundan Pahan group in the killing. It is active in the border areas of Ranchi, Khuti and Jamshedpur. Indo-Asian News Service / Ranchi, October 06, 2009
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| After a severe drought, what led to the worst floods in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh? |
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Blame it on the rain, you could say. Irrigation officials say these are possibly the worst floods in this area in 10,000 years. But what caused this disaster? Could it have been better managed? Kurnool, Mahbubnagar, Krishna and Guntur are the worst affected districts. Overall, at least 18 lakh people in nearly 400 villages of Andhra Pradesh have been affected by the floods. 180 villages in Kurnool, 89 in Mahbubnagar, 100 in Guntur and 22 in Nalgonda are in bad shape due to the flood waters. Five hundred fifty five army men, 6 choppers, 1000 swimmers and 254 boats are involved in the relief work. Unprecedented rains in North Karnataka on Thursday flooded several districts, cutting off areas like Bijapur, Bagalkot and Bellary. Karwar for instance got 50 cm of rain in a single day, locals called it the heaviest downpour in 50 years. The waters inundated the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers and the Karnataka government released upto 8 lakh cusecs of water from the Almatti and Narayanpur dams, in a single day. From the last week of September, Andhra Pradesh was experiencing heavy rains, some areas got over 30 cm in a single day. This brought heavy inflows into major projects in Krishna Basin like Jurala, Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar, Prakasam Barrage and Sunkesula. Early on Friday, reports started coming in of water levels rising dangerously in the border town of Mantralayam in Andhra Pradesh. By evening, the water level had crossed the danger mark in Srisailam dam... in a single day on Friday, the reservoir had received over 25 lakh cusecs of water in 12 hours, whereas it is designed to get no more than 13.6 lakh cusecs. On Saturday, the maximum water limit was crossed in Srisailam, Jurala and Sunkesula projects causing inundation in many villages in the backwaters. Kurnool town and several villages in Kurnool, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda districts were flooded. From the Srisailam dam, the waters were flowing into Nagarjunasagar dam... and on Sunday morning, 10.85 lakh cusecs were released to keep the masonry dam safe. The waters that reached Prakasam Barrage in the coastal Krishna district on Monday have submerged hundreds of villages. Prakasam Barrage has never received such huge amounts of water in the last 100 years. Critics point out that the Andhra Pradesh government could have better anticipated and prepared for systematic release of waters from the Sukeshu, Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams before matters got really out of hand. The Andhra Pradesh government however points out that it is the first time in history that the scale of floods has been so massive. "This is known as PMF or possible maximum flood, which happens once in 10,000 years," said Geetha Reddy, AP Information Minister. The Met department has said there is likely to be a letup in rains and Karnataka has said they will release minimum waters. So, the waters in the major dams may be safely regulated. ndtv / October 5, 2009
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| Land dispute carnage in Khagaria district of Bihar |
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Hours before dawn broke on the 140th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, suspected Maoist guerrillas gunned down 16 people, including five children, after dragging them out of their homes here in Bihar's Khagaria district, 190 km from Patna. The killings were apparently over a land dispute between Musahars, who are mostly landless Dalits, and Kurmis, who come under Other Backward Castes (OBCs). "Land dispute was the cause of carnage," Khagaria SP Indranand Mishra said. In a sign of assertion, possibly egged on by the Maoists, Musahars were demanding the Kurmis vacate their land for them. Another senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said the killings could be the work of Naxalites. "The extremists took up the cause of Musahars who are Maoist sympathisers," he said. Some time after Thursday midnight, at least 24 gunmen descended on Amousi village, where 21 villagers were asleep, guarding their farmland and cattle. They were woken up, dragged out of their homes and their hands tied up. The children who were killed in this carnage were all between 10 and 15 years of age. However, before the bloodbath began, four of the 21 captives managed to escape under the cover of darkness. Of the 17, one Paro Singh survived as he lay pretending to be dead even after the killers' bullet -- they were shooting indiscriminately -- missed him. As the assailants left, Paro Singh ran to the village and informed the villagers. The police reached five hours later, and recorded the statement of Singh who said he could identify 10 of the killers as they were local Musahars. Paro told TOI that local Musahars four months back had threatened him and his family with dire consequences if he did not vacate his farmland. "We had petitioned district officials, but it was useless," he said, and added that he never expected Musahars to resort to such an extreme step for grabbing his land. Musahars, the poorest among poor Dalits in Bihar, are so named for their rat-catching skills. Many of them eat rodents. While 14 of the victims belonged to backward Kurmi caste, two were Kushwahas, also OBCs. Khagaria has not witnessed caste clashes before. In fact, Bihar, too, hasn't seen caste war for years -- the last one taking place in 2000 when at least 34 OBC Yadavs were killed in Aurangabad's Miapur village in retaliation of the killing of an equal number of upper caste Bhumihars in Jehanabad's Senari village in 1999. The attack amounts to a political setback for CM Nitish Kumar, who has been trying to build a grand alliance between non-Yadav OBCs and the Maha-Dalits -- that is all Dalits except Chamaars and Paswans. The assault on Kurmis hits at Kumar's core constituency. Not surprisingly, Lok Janshakti Party's Ramvilas Paswan has said, "Nitish has a lot to explain... He should take moral resonsibility and resign." Alauli block, under which Icharwa falls, has seen Maoist violence in the past also. Two policemen were killed, a farm house and a brick kiln blown and six tractors of a road construction company burnt by Maoists in different incidents during the last three years in the area. At the time of going to the press, cops claimed to have arrested eight of the 10 named accused besides four suspects. A massive combing operation was on to nab others, the SP said, and added that the police are probing if it was a Maoist operation. TNN 3 October 2009
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