Al Qaeda Training Camp In Jharkhand Found

New Delhi/Ranchi: The Delhi Police has disclosed that a training camp of al Qaeda terror group has been operating “somewhere in Jharkhand”.

As per a report in the Hindustan Times, the police made the revelation in an application filed before a court in Delhi last week.

The police told the court that they were on the lookout for one Abu Sufiyan, who hails from Jharkhand.

Abu Sufiyan, suspect police, had visited Pakistan to receive training at terror camps run by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and al Qaeda in Indian Sub-Continent (AQIS).

The application was filed to seek grant of more time to file chargesheet against al Qaeda operative Mohammad Asif, who was nabbed on December 14 last year.

The court is reported to have granted the time extension.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police’s revelation has come as a headache for the state’s security apparatus as Jharkhand continues to deal with the Naxal menace in at least 16 out of its 24 districts.

Jharkhand Police has so far denied existence of any terror camp of al Qaeda on its soil.

There are no terror camps in Jharkhand jungles, police spokesperson SN Pradhan said.

HT quoted Inspector General of Police (operation) MS Bhatia as saying, “Modules of the Indian Mujahiddin existed in the state but they have been busted. They were responsible for the Patna and the Bodh Gaya blasts. The terrorists develop sleeper cells in the state whose members carry out violent acts in other states.”

Earlier this year, in a series of arrests, the Delhi Police had nabbed five AQIS members – identified as Mohammad Asif, Zafar Masood, Mohammad Abdul Rehman, Syed Anzar Shah and Abdul Sami – from different states.

The daily reported that Sami, who lives in Jamshedpur, had allegedly travelled to Pakistan along with Abu Sufiyan.

“Sufiyan’s arrest is crucial in finding out the missing links of the larger conspiracy,” the police application said.

Delhi Police had earlier said that the arrested AQIS operatives planned to attack Delhi and other cities on January 26.

Nandigram Day Being Celebrated Today

Medinipur: Nandigram Day is being celebrated pompously on Monday, 14^th March. Shuvendu Adhikari along with Land Eviction Protest Committee paid tribute to the Martyrs by lighting up the candle and putting garlands at ‘Shaheed Bedi’ on Monday. Family of the martyrs was also present.

Mamata Banerjee would lead a procession to remember the martyrs who fell to the bullets of police and cadres, under the instructions of the CPI(M).

In January 2007, farmers in Nandigram erupted in protest against a proposed special economic zone (SEZ).

On March 14, the then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya sent 2,500 policemen to ‘recapture’ Nandigram, but unofficially, they were accompanied by CPI(M) cadres.

Officially, 14 farmers died in the firing, but over 100 were declared “missing”. A similar attempt in November by the cadres finally ‘recaptured’ Nandigram. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya showed no remorse as he said, “They (farmers and Trinamool activists) have been paid back in their own coin.”

In its final report, the People’s Tribunal on Nandigram had called the violence of March 14, 2007 a “pre-planned, state-sponsored massacre” carried out “to teach a lesson” to people opposing the SEZ project on their land.

The Tribunal report, handed over to Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Governor of West Bengal on August 8, also called for the re-arrest of the ten CPI(M) cadres taken into custody earlier by the CBI but let off on bail due to the deliberate laxity of the West Bengal State police in filing charges against them within the statutory period.

Charge Sheet Filed Against 35 FTII Students

Pune: Thirty five FTII students were today listed in a charge sheet for allegedly gheraoing and illegally confining the institute’s director Prashant Pathrabe last year, of whom 30 were later granted bail.

The Deccan-Gymkhana police, which is probing the case, filed the charge sheet against 35 students in a court and the next hearing will be held on April 2, the prosecution said.

“There are total 35 students against whom the charge sheet has been filed. Five students were arrested on the intervening night of August 18-19 and released on bail. 30 students, including 12 who were out on anticipatory bail, were given (regular) bail today,” defence counsel Shrikant Shivade said.

Shivade moved a bail plea for 30 students in the court of first class judicial magistrate S S Bangad, who granted bail to all the students on a personal bond of Rs 3,000 each.

The FTII students, who were on a strike for 139 days since June last year against the appointment of BJP member and TV actor Gajendra Chauhan as its chairman, had allegedly gheraoed and confined Pathrabe in his office on August 17.

They had challenged his decision to go ahead with the assessment of the incomplete diploma film projects of the 2008 batch students.

The incident had led to police swooping-in on the campus on the intervening night of August 18-19, and arresting five students.

The students were booked under various sections of IPC, including 143, 147, 149, 323, 353 and 506, dealing with offences, some of them non-bailable, related to unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation and rioting.

Seventeen students were last year identified and named in an FIR filed in connection with the case.

Last week, the police, after screening the video footage of the incident, had identified 18 more students and asked them to present themselves in the court today.