Colombo, May 16: At least 10 persons were killed, three of them policewomen, when a LTTE suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into a bus carrying riot-control police personnel just a few hundred metres from the official residence of the Sri Lankan President on Friday noon, officials said. Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the dead included seven police personnel and two civilians, besides the Black Tiger. Over 90 were injured in the massive blast heard across the city. Many civilians were among those hurt and some were in critical state at the National Hospital, he said.

“The LTTE suicide bomber rammed his motorbike into a bus carrying police personnel,” Brig Nanayakkara said. The pro-LTTE TamilNet website however said the killer had used a three-wheeler (autorickshaw) to ram into the bus. The police personnel were on their way to provide additional security for the swearing-in ceremony of former Tamil Tiger Pillaiyan as the chief minister of the newly elected Eastern Province, at the Presidential Secretariat later in the evening.

The attack took place across a Buddhist temple in the highly guarded Fort area of Colombo’s commercial zone dotted by army and police check-posts. Apart from the residence of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the area also houses the five-star Hilton Hotel and the twin-tower World Trade Centre office complex—a previous target of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.  The blast site appeared like a battlefield strewn with shattered glass and twisted metal, not to forget the dead and the injured.

Appealing to the people to remain calm “and not be provoked by this further display of unmitigated terror”, President Rajapaksa said, “With this bomb attack on a busy street, the LTTE has once again demonstrated to the world its total commitment to violence and terror to achieve its separatist goals in Sri Lanka, and its absolute contempt for democracy and human rights.”

The Black Tiger hit was obviously meant to demonstrate the LTTE anger at the Pillaiyan swearing-in and also its claim to be able to strike anywhere, any time. It was the third big LTTE attack in a week—a bomb had ripped through a crowded café in the eastern town of Ampara on the eve of the May 10 provincial elections, killing 12 and injuring over 36. And just hours before the polling started, a Sea Tiger suicide diver sank a naval ship docked in the eastern port of Trincomalee.

The government, however, is putting up a brave front in the midst of these deadly hits by the Black Tigers.. Prime minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake earlier this week ruled out resumption of peace talks with the Tigers and declared that victory “is within the grasp of our heroic security forces.” He had also claimed that the days of the LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran “are numbered”.

Chennai, May 16: Chief minister M. Karunanidhi was admitted to the Sri Ramachandra medical college hospital at Porur on Friday following neck pain and backache. The doctors attending on him advised him to undergo traction and physiotherapy for four days.  Despite his age, the octogenarian has been working hard not only in giving final touches to the state budget in March but also in participating in the nearly 40 day-long Assembly budget session without a break.

The DMK patriarch had been keenly watching the debate in the Assembly and actively participating in the proceedings inspite of his health conditions. He would sit through the long session. On many occasions, he would take the support of his colleagues and personal staff to walk back to his chamber with great difficulty. “He has been postponing treatment for his neck and back pain since the last few days. The long hours at the House further aggravated the pain,” sources close to the chief minister told this newspaper on Friday.

“A scan on Thursday detected the wearing of the bone, which has caused the present ailment of neck and back pain,” the source added. Following this, Mr Karunanidhi was admitted to the Sri Ramachandra Hospital at 9 am. His family physician Dr Gopal and doctors at the hospital – Marthandam, Thanikachalam and Arumugam - are attending on him.

Mr Karunanidhi, who will turn 85 on June 3, has been practicing yoga and was undergoing physiotherapy once in ten days for knee joint pains. The five time chief minister’s present indisposition may make it difficult for him to attend the wedding of N. Surya, grand daughter of agriculture minister Veerapandi S. Arumugam at Salem on May 18.

On May 13, on the occasion of his party completing two years in office, he made an emotional appeal to the political parties to strive for the betterment of  society. A day later, he appealed to his supporters not to celebrate his birthday and desist from calling on him on that day.  In view of his tremendous mental and physical strain, he should be spared from the task of receiving visitors and accepting their greetings, he had said.

Moreover, he had said that he would not be in the capital city for a whole week. Almost all his family members including son and state local administration minister M. K. Stalin, his wives Dayalu Ammal and Rajathi Ammal, daughters Kanimozhi (Rajya Sabha MP) and Selvi, and Maran’s brother Selvam visited him at the hospital.

Besides union minister for urban development S. Jaipal Reddy, TNCC president M. Krishnaswamy, Dravidar Kazhagam president K. Veeramani, lyricist Vairamuthu, state ministers: Arcot N. Veerasamy, Duraimurugan, K. Ponmudi, A.V. Velu, Pongalur N. Palanisamy, M. R. K. Panneerselvam, K. R. Periakaruppan, T. P. M. Mohideen Khan, Geetha Jeevan, T. M. Anbarasan, Chennai CoP G. Nanjil Kumaran and Kancheepuram district collector Santosh K. Misra called on the chief minister. Meanwhile, state finance minister K. Anbazhagan appealed to the public not to disturb the chief minister till he recovers completely.

Jaipur, May 16: The Rajasthan government on Friday ordered a crackdown on Bangladeshis with criminal backgrounds and said the police has already begun questioning them. This was revealed by state PWD minister and government spokesperson Rajendra Singh Rathore on Friday. Jaipur returned to normalcy on Friday with no curfew being imposed in the city.

Investigators have also detected startling similarities between the explosives used in the Jaipur bomb blasts and the Lumbini Park blasts in Hyderabad. Mr Rathore said the 10 bicycles used to plant the bombs in Jaipur’s walled city were bought from eight shops in the Kishanpole area of the city. All but two shop-owners have been identified. Investigators suspect that the bombs were assembled and the bicycles bought and placed just hours before the blasts.

“We have ordered the identification of suspicious Bangladeshis within 30 days. We have issued orders that names of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants found to be on the ration card rolls should be struck off. The Bangladeshis with criminal backgrounds are being identified,” Mr Rathore said. “Many of those questioned say they are residents of 24 Parganas and other districts in West Bengal. The claims are being verified,” he added.

“Our government took it very seriously. Our officials spoke to senior authorities in the Union home ministry and requested help in tackling the Bangladeshi issue,” Mr Rathore said. According to the minister, in 2004, there were 2,500 Bangladeshis in Jaipur and the number is now over 10,000. The first such action was reported from Ajmer, where the police had arrested eight Bangladeshi nationals.

All district collectors and superintendents of police have been directed to complete within 30 days the process of identifying Bangladeshi migrants living with or without voter ID cards and/or ration cards and get them verified, Mr Rathore said, adding that the procedure for deporting the identified illegal aliens could then be started. 

According to the police, there are a large number of Bangladeshi nationals living around the dargah area in Ajmer. These people came here as devotees and settled here, but the problem is that these Bangladeshis got involved in crimes,” said a senior police officer.  The state government acted after investigators suspected the Bangladesh-based terrorist outfit Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) of being behind the blasts. Also, one of the cycle-shop owners apparently told investigators that a man with a Bengali accent had purchased one of the bicycles.

DIG Saurabh Srivastava of the Rajasthan police’s special investigation team (SIT), when questioned about a Maruti Esteem car found locked near Jaipur’s railway station, said it belonged to one Afzal Dehlvi, a resident of Lucknow, who had apparently left the car and boarded a train to Chennai to visit his ailing mother. The car belonged earlier to a lady resident of Delhi who had sold it off a year ago.

The police is also probing the claims of an Udaipur resident who claims he saw one of the suspects with a woman at his restaurant recently. The police has so far released sketches of four men who allegedly bought the bicycles (used to plant the bombs) on Tuesday.  The Rajasthan police SIT is working closely with anti-terrorist squads from Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to crack the case. The Rajasthan police currently has a team camping at Sahibabad, UP, to probe an email sent to a TV channel. Investigators also point out that bombs were planted on bicycles in recent terror strikes in various cities of UP, a similarity with the Jaipur bomb blasts.

According to the Rajasthan government, 63 people died in Tuesday’s blasts. Of these, 51 of the deceased have been identified and the families of half of these have already been given the compensation announced by the government.

New Delhi, May 16: Roadblocks for the admission of OBC candidates in postgraduate courses, including in IIMs and IITs, were cleared on Friday by the Supreme Court, which lifted the Calcutta high court order staying implementation of the 27 per cent quota for them in Central educational institutions.
The Supreme Court described the high court’s ex-parte interim order  as “strange” and said that “no court can sit over its judgment.”

“We cannot allow the Calcutta high court order to operate,” a bench  headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said, and emphasised that “where is the question of stay when the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, has been upheld.” “Can Calcutta high court sit over the order of the Supreme Court,” the bench, which also comprised Justices H.K. Sema and P.P. Naolekar, asked, after solicitor-general G.E. Vahanvati questioned the legality of the high court order which was delivered without taking into account that the quota law was upheld by the Supreme Court on April 10.

However, it said admissions will be provisional subject to the final outcome in the matter before it as those opposing the government  memorandum for implementation of the quota in post-graduate courses have contended that the majority verdict of the five-judge bench has set a benchmark that a graduate cannot be considered educationally backward.

The court stayed all proceedings relating to OBC quota that are pending in the high courts of Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay and  issued notices to those petitioners, including Delhi-based Youth  for Equality, on the Centre’s petition seeking transfer of those  matters to the Supreme Court. The bench said the concept of “creamy layer” was restricted only to class and community, and those falling in the category will be excluded from the benefit of quota.

“Graduation cannot be clubbed with creamy layer,” Justice Balakrishnan said when senior advocates K.K. Venugopal, Harish Salve and P.P. Rao stressed that three judges — Justice

New Delhi, May 16: An exit poll conducted by NDTV forecast that the BJP was expected to pick up between 32 and 42 of the 66 seats contested in the second phase of the Karnataka Assembly elections on Friday. The central part of the state, where the polls were held, is not the BJP’s strongest support base.

The BJP is considered strongest in northern Karnataka, which will go to the polls in the third phase on Thursday. Counting of results will take place on Sunday, May 25. The exit poll predicted that the Congress, which had 20 seats, is expected to win between 15 and 20 seats, and the JD(S), which had 12 seats, is likely to get between eight and 12 seats.

The BJP had a three per cent swing in its favour, according to the exit poll. The Congress faced a loss of one per cent votes and the JD(S) two per cent, it said. Others were expected to win around two to four seats, the exit poll said. After exit polls covering 155 seats (more than half of the total 224), the BJP has been projected as getting 73 seats, the Congress 45 and JD(S) 42. Security was tightened in light of Thursday’s poll-related violence in which Naxalites shot dead two persons at Hebri, in Udupi district, and also some clashes between Congress and BJP workers in Bellary.

More than 56,000 security personnel acted as a deterrent to trouble-makers and also to Naxal outfits which had called for people to boycott polling in the districts of Udupi, Chikmagalur and Shimoga. No untoward incident was reported from the highly-sensitive Bellary district following scaled-up protection in the wake of an alleged attack on a Congress worker by BJP leader and former minister B. Sriramulu on Thursday. Barring two minor incidents of damaging EVMs, voting was trouble-free.

Chennai, May 16: Mr Vinod Seshan (25) from Thandalai village near Kallakurichi in Villupuram district has got the third rank in the Civil Services Examination, 2007. He said, “It is really exciting. I never achieved any outstanding position in academics. For the first time in my life, I have got national-level recognition.”

His house was filled with mediapersons. His father Mr Seshan is a divisional manager (survey) at Ashok Leyland, Chennai. His mother Ms Lakshmi used to be a school teacher at Bangalore which she gave up later.  Mr Vinod had his schooling at Air Force School, Bangalore, and then studied B.E. Electronics and Telecommunications at Siddhaganga Institute of Technology in Tumkur, Karnataka, and passed out in 2004.

He worked in Sonata software company in Chennai for one-and-a-half years.  His brother Mr Vivek Seshan studied software engineering in Vel’s institute of Technology, Chennai, and is currently working in a software firm in Chennai.  Mr Vinod is one among the 79 Tamils out of the 734 people who have qualified for the civil services at the national level.

Chennai, May 16:  A 16-year-old girl from Tambaram was sold to a person involved in human trafficking in Coimbatore for Rs. 1.5 lakh by her close friend’s mother. Abdul Rahman, who took custody of the girl after proposing marriage to her, was planning to sell her off to a brothel in Mumbai when she escaped from his clutches and reached the city on Thursday, the police said.  

The victim Kavitha (name changed) lived with her mother Vijayalakshmi at her elder sister’s place near Tambaram Sanatorium. Kavitha’s schooling got disrupted a few years ago where her parents’ marriage failed and the family moved from Thanjavur.
After reaching here, Kavitha was attending a tutorial college in the city when she got friendly with her classmate Radhika (name changed), whose mother Ayesha was allegedly a sex worker and lived with  Satish, involved in human trafficking,  at Perungulathur. 

Attracted by Kavitha’s good looks and the vulnerable family situation, Ayesha hit upon a plan to lure her into the flesh trade. She brainwashed Kavitha saying that she was very attractive and would be able to led a luxurious life if only she followed her (Ayesha) advice.

Kavitha fell for Ayesha’s words and accompanied her and Satish to Coimbatore on April 11  where the unsuspecting girl was sold to a wealthye Adbul Rehman from Kuniyamuthur in Coimbatore district. “Abdul promised to marry went around with her for one or two weeks during which time he had sexual relationship with  with her,” the police said.  Kavitha, however, had been in regular phone contact with her elder sister Nirmala and updated her of the marriage with 42-year-old Abdul.

“After visiting several tourist places for around two weeks, Abdul took Kavitha to his house where he already had a wife and two children. It was then that Kavitha realised what was in store for her,’’  the police said.   She immediately contacted Nirmala who advised her to wait for an opportunity and report to the nearest police station. Meanwhile, Vijayalakshmi and Nirmala had already filed a missing complaint on April 13 at the Chrompet police station. 

Kavitha escaped from the clutches of Abdul Rehman and reached the Kuniyamuthur police station three days ago. A special police team from Chennai rushed to Kuniyamuthur and brought Kavitha to Chennai. The police also arrested Abdul Rehman and brought him to the city.  Later on Friday, the police arrested Ayesha and Satish and believe that the duo could have sold several others like Kavitha. Further investigations are on.