Almost the entire Brahmaputra valley was handed over to the army by Assam’s state administration, shaken by a fresh outbreak of communal violence that claimed 39 more lives. Areas under 24 police stations in the Goalpara, Kamrup, and Dibrugarh districts have been declared disturbed and placed under the Armed Forces Special Powers (Assam and Manipur) Act of 1958.
CPI-M wins nemom: Kerala’s ruling coalition has suffered a heavy blow with the loss of the Nemom assembly seat, a traditional non-Communist constituency to the Left Democratic Front. The CPI-M candidate, V J Thankappan, won by 8,000 votes — more than twice the margin acquired by Chief Minister K Karunakaran in the May poll.
Terror alert: The Intelligence Bureau has alerted the government about the possibility of a bomb attack on French establishments in New Delhi by a group of Iranian terrorists during the non-aligned summit. Investigations by intelligence officials have pinpointed the responsibility for the recent explosions in the offices of Air France, the Iraqi Airways, and the US Embassy on this group. According to their assessments, the group is likely to strike again during the summit and have singled out French offices in the city as their main target.
President & Akalis: President Zail Singh has turned down the Akali demand for his resignation from the presidency and has instead appealed to them to withdraw their resignations from Parliament and the Punjab Assembly and to resume a dialogue with the government on their demands.
