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Bizarre Bazaar: 19th Feb 2009
COLOMBO , Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan military says at least 32,000 people have fled the war zone in the Indian Ocean island’s north-east, wheretroops aim to deal a death blow to separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and end a 25-year-old civil war. The war zone has been sealed off to journalists and most aid workers. Humanitarian agencies estimate about 250,000 people are trapped.
PATNA, India
In a bizarre occult ritual, a 10-year-old girl was allegedly killed by her mother and brother in a Bihar village to appease a deity. Sunita Kumari was killed in Hardoravara village in Siwan district after an occult practitioner asked the victim’s mother and brother to sacrifice the girl for divine blessings. The shocked villagers informed the police and demanded action against those involved in the killing. "It was a case of a girl child sacrifice to appease the god and get rid of all problems," the police officer said.
ORISSA, India
Nine people were killed and about 150 people were injured when a superfast train derailed in Orissa. Several coaches of the Howrah-Chennai Coromandel Express went off the track near the Jajpur-Keonjhar Road railway station, about 120 km from Orissa capital Bhubaneswar. The railway ministry has announced compensation packages for the injured passengers while promising a government job to one person of each of the families of victims.
KERALA, India
Police have taken into custody Josekutty, the only son of former Kerala speaker T.S. John, for his suspected involvement in the murder of his mother. Aleykutty, 65, was found in a pool of blood in the family home. Josekutty told police he saw someone running out of his home at the time and there was no electricity in their house. Aleykutty was a former teacher. John is chairman of the Kerala Congress (Secular) Party.
DHAKA, Bangladesh
More than 200 people, including several policemen, were injured in clashes with students of technical colleges across Bangladesh over a new, more stringent academic policy. The violence erupted when students vandalized vehicles demanding cancellation of the new academic policy, under which students would be expelled if they failed any exams, and only able to resume their studies in the next year. In the past students failing in one subject could appear for a supplementary exam to pass and stay in their courses.
CHANDIGARH, India
Search giant Google has been approached by the Chandigarh police after apparently morphed pornographic photographs of leading Haryana politicians were posted on the Internet. The police have asked Google to trace the source of the pornographic photographs following a complaint from Haryana Congress secretary Mahinder Singh. The pictures pertain to three senior Haryana politicians — Finance Minister Birender Singh, Education Minister Mange Ram Gupta and senior legislator Shamsher Singh Surjewala.
AGRA, India
A man who was allegedly driving around this city of the Taj Mahal in a car with fake UN number plates was taken into custody by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad. A police team was following the movements of Deepanshu Chakrovarty, who claimed to be a neurosurgeon and a representative of the UN, for the past two months, and had put his phone under surveillance, said a senior official. A large number of letterheads of various organizations, forged cheques, rubber stamps, seals, VIP parking passes, UN visiting cards and vehicle permits were seized from him.
GHAZIABAD, India
A marriage procession turned into mayhem when three people were shot dead in a clash between high-caste Brahmins and the untouchable Dalits. According to police, a group of Dalits was in a marriage procession through the Brahmin-dominated Nayphal locality. The young Dalit boys in the procession were dancing in high spirits when bystanders taunted them. Angered at the remarks, the boys pulled pistols from their pockets and in a fit of rage opened fire, killing two Brahmin men on the spot.
DELHI, India
Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli were sentenced to death for raping and killing a 14-year-old girl from Nithari village four years ago. They stand accused of killing a further 18 children and women. The murders, known as the Nithari killings, are alleged to have taken place in the Delhi satellite town of Noida, where the victims — mostly children — lived in slums near a foul drain.
GUWAHATI, India
Police in Assam are in a quandary with a mysterious "stone man" claiming his sixth victim — a pavement dweller — in less than two months in the state’s main city of Guwahati. The killings come as a thriller based on the unsolved serial killings of pavement dwellers in Mumbai in 1983 hit the screens. The attacks are almost the same — the attacker targets the victim before dawn, bludgeoning him to death by hitting him with a stone like object on the back of the head and the ears.
SHIMLA, India
Four people were arrested at a Himachal Pradesh village near here and eight leopard skins were seized, police said. Police sources said the accused belonged to Shimla district and purchased the pelts from a villager. The seized skins were of seven adult animals and one leopard cub. The leopard falls under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act and can not be hunted.
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