Actress Mugdha Godse displays a creation by Pria Kataaria Puri on the first day of the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai on Friday. PHOTO: AFP

New Delhi, March 5: The Congress and BJP on Friday issued three-line whips to their members to back the Women’s Reservation Bill, coming up in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, while the Marxists have assured the government they will issue a similar whip to ensure the passage of the bill. The coming together of these parties as well as TDP and BJD support has virtually marginalised the Samajwadi Party, BSP, Janata Dal (U) and RJD.

New Delhi, March 5: On a day when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the government is ready to talk to any separatist group that abjures violence unconditionally and agrees to abide by the constitutional process, Union home secretary G.K. Pillai said the Maoists may be taking the help of ex-Army and ex-paramilitary personnel to build their own army to try and overthrow the Indian state by 2050.

Kolkata, March 5: Chemicals like sulphur and ammonium nitrate, which are also used to manufacture improvised explosive devices (IEDs), were found stocked in gunny bags near Sirsi village in Kotwali, in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district, late on Thursday night. This is the biggest haul of chemicals used for explosives in West Bengal. Had these chemicals been converted into bombs, the magnitude of damage would have been very high.

New Delhi, March 5: While urging the Supreme Court to remove all the three Gujarat police officials from the special investigating team probing the major post-Godhra riot cases, the NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), fighting for justice for the riot victims, has submitted detailed phone records of the top police establishment in the state in a bid to make a case for their removal.

London, March 5: A treasure of jewels and gold coins, which most likely belong to English crime writer Agatha Christie, have been discovered in a battered old trunk bought for £100 at an auction.

AGE CORRESPONDENT

A police officer surveys the shoe- and slipper-littered site after a stampede at an ashram in Kunda, UP, on Thursday.     PHOTO: AP

Lucknow ,March 4: Sixty-five people were killed and over 200 seriously injured in a stampede at the Mangadh Ashram in Kunda, in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district, on Thursday. Sources, however, said the death toll was much higher. The victims included 37 children and 26 women.

Srinagar ,March 4: An Army officer and two militants were killed and three soldiers and a policeman wounded in a renewed gunfight at Dadasar, outside the Kashmiri town of Tral about 40 km south of capital Srinagar, raising the toll to five. Two militants were killed earlier on Wednesday when the encounter started.
This was the second major operation in eight days launched jointly by the Army’s Rashtriya Rifles, the CRPF and local police’s counter-insurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) against militants in the Valley.

New Delhi ,March 4: The BJP-led NDA is divided on the Women’s Reservation Bill with the Janata Dal (U) and the Shiv Sena opposing it in its present form. The government has decided to take up the bill in the Rajya Sabha on March 8.

The bill, which provides 33 per cent reservations for women in the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies, was controversial from day one. JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav on Thursday made it clear that his party is not opposing reservation for women but the bill does not ensure a quota for backward caste women and, if passed in its present form, would protect the interests of women belonging to the so-called upper castes.