Indian Sub-continent

Srinagar, Oct 6 (PTI) In the first major political development post withdrawal of special status to Jammu and Kashmir, a 15-member National Conference delegation on Sunday met detained party leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah here.

The delegation discussed developments in the state and upcoming local body polls during the separate meetings with the two leaders. The Jammu and Kashmir government had given permission to the delegation to meet the leaders.

Sukma, Oct 5 (PTI) Security forces in Chhattisgarh on Saturday thwarted a possible naxal attack when they recovered a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) planted along a main road in Sukma district, police said.

A team of CRPF's 150th battalion and local police was out on a search operation when it unearthed the IED, weighing 5 kg, packed in a steel tiffin box, a senior official said.

The IED was buried close to a tree on the side of the road near Penta village in the Errabor police station area.

Mumbai, Oct 5 (PTI) Inspired by a film, a candidate from Latur Assembly seat in Maharashtra paid the poll deposit amount in Rs 10 coins to highlight the fact that the coin is not being accepted as legal tender by local traders.

Santosh Sabde, who is contesting as independent from this central Maharashtra town, said Election Commission officials on Friday were hesitant to accept the deposit in coins, but "acquiesced eventually".

Mumbai, Oct 5 (PTI) Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh are among the 40 "star" campaigners of the party for the October 21 assembly elections in Maharashtra, the first major political contest after the Lok Sabha outing held earlier this year.

Among other top leaders of the party who are expected to hit the hustings are former party president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the party general secretary in Uttar Pradesh.

Patna, Oct 5 (PTI) RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwary on Saturday sought Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's intervention and annulment of the sedition case against 49 well known personalities who had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put a check on the growing incidence of mob lynching.

An FIR was lodged on Thursday at Muzaffarpur in Bihar for alleged sedition against the personalities who included Anurag Kashyap, Aparna Sen, Mani Ratnam, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Soumitra Chatterjee, Shubha Mudgal and Ramchandra Guha.

Jammu, Oct 5 (PTI) Over 8,600 community and individual bunkers have been constructed along the Line of Control and the International Border in five districts of the Jammu region, an official spokesperson said on Saturday.

The information was given at a meeting, chaired by Divisional Commissioner (DC) of Jammu, Sanjeev Verma, to review the progress of construction of bunkers in Samba, Kathua, Jammu, Poonch and Rajouri districts, he said.

Aurangabad, Oct 5 (PTI) Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi on Saturday said a new "Father of the Nation" has come up with the emergence of new India, but the Mahatma could never have become the father of such nation.

He also termed as "sacrilege" the theft of an urn which was used for immersing ashes of the Father of Nation in Madhya Pradesh recently and slammed the governments at Centre and Madhya Pradesh for their "silence".

Muzaffarnagar, Oct 6 (PTI) A 17-year-old girl was raped by two youths in a sugarcane field at Kawal village in the district, police said.

The incident happened on Saturday when the victim has gone to throw rubbish nearby by his house under Jansath police station limits, Station House Officer Yogesh Sharma said.

According to a complaint lodged by the victim's father, Bijender and Rabbal raped his daughter and threatened her not tell anybody about the incident.

Srinagar, Oct 6 (PTI) People thronged the weekly flea market in Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital on Sunday even as some shops in the city opened in the morning hours, officials said.

However, main markets across Kashmir were shut and most of the public transport was off the roads as normal life remained affected in the valley for the 63rd consecutive day, they said.

The weekly flea market, locally known as Sunday market, was open as several dozen vendors had put up stalls on the TRC Chowk-Lal Chowk road, the officials said.

Mumbai, Oct 5 (PTI) Green activists suffered a second jolt in two consecutive days when the Bombay High Court on Saturday refused to stay ongoing felling of trees at Mumbai's prominent green lung, Aarey Colony, to make way for a proposed metro car shed.