Lucknow, May 27 (IANS) Two men have been arrested from an Uttar Pradesh town with two ‘ashtdhatu‘ (eight-medal) antique idols worth Rs.20 crore in the international market, police said Thursday.

Shahabuddin and Ashok Prasad opened fire as they were nabbed Wednesday evening in Taryasujan, 350 km from here.

‘Acting on a tip-off, we intercepted the two. They opened fire at us. After a one-hour gunfight, we managed to arrest them,’ police inspector Nitish Srivastava told reporters.

‘We are yet to ascertain the place from where the two men brought the idols as they gave contradictory statements. They are being interrogated.’

The two have confessed that they have been operating for the last five years in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.

While Shahabuddin is from Uttar Pradesh, Prasad hails from Bihar. Both are in their early 40s.

Bhopal, May 27 (IANS) A 13-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh died while her elder sister was battling for life Thursday after the duo attempted suicide following harassment by two constables, who had allegedly clicked obscene photographs of one of them.

The incident took place in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district, about 350 km from here.

While the younger sibling died Wednesday, the elder one is being treated at a hospital in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, police said Thursday.

Two police constables, Kanhaiyalal and Arvind Patel, had allegedly caught the elder sister with her boyfriend May 21 in a deserted area. The cops snatched the mobile phone of the boyfriend and forced him to leave the place, an official said.

They then allegedly molested the girl and clicked some obscene photographs of hers from the mobile phone.

Next day, the girl filed a written complaint with Chhatarpur Additional Superintendent of Police Sushil Tiwari stating that the constables had clicked obscene photographs of hers and were harassing her.

‘On receipt of the complaint, I checked the cell phones of the constables but there was nothing objectionable,’ Tiwari told IANS.

‘However, the constables were suspended with immediate effect and a departmental enquiry was ordered against them,’ he added.

The sisters had told their neighbours that the constables had come to their house Wednesday and were harassing them, police said.

Superintendent of Police Prem Singh Bist said one of the constables accused of harassing the sisters suffered a heart attack on hearing that the girls attempted suicide.

Dausa MP Kirori Lal Meena, who was on a dharna here seeking justice for a tribal woman allegedly raped by an IPS officer about 13 years ago, was arrested along with 13 others in the wee hours on Wednesday.

“Fourteen people, including Meena, were arrested under section 151 of CrPC (arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences) and taken to Ajmer Jail, while the other persons who were on dharna were sent to their houses,” IG (Jaipur Range-I) B L Soni said.

Extra force have been deployed at the dharna site near civil line railway crossing here as a precautionary measure. Read more from Times of India

Expressing disappointment at the deteriorating ties between the two countries after the Mumbai terror attacks, Indians visiting Pakistan are rushing back home well before their visas expire.

One such person who changed her plans was Indian national Haleema, who travelled to Pakistan by the Thar Express train to meet her brother living in Karachi after a gap of 45 years.

“I wanted to see my brother before I died and the Thar Express provided me the chance to do that. I wanted to stay here for at least two months and spend time with my brother’s family but now I have to leave,” she told the Daily Times, bursting into tears.

Several other Indians who travelled to Sindh by the Thar Express to visit relatives in Pakistan are making their way back home well before their visas expire because of tensions in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, which India has blamed on the Pakistan-based elements like the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group.

Some Pakistani families have already cancelled plans to travel to India.

Farzana, a resident of Korangi in Karachi, was born in Uttar Pradesh. She married a Pakistani relative 15 years ago and wanted to visit her birthplace along with her mother who was also in this country.

However, the tensions between the two countries forced her to reconsider her travel plans and she has cancelled her tickets.

“I had planned on going to Uttar Pradesh to visit my birthplace with my mother but my husband is not allowing me to go in view of the current situation,” said a visibly disappointed Farzana.

The situation may have forced Farzana to cancel her plans of travelling to India but her mother remained adamant on going to the neighbouring country.

“My mother refused to cancel the tickets, she says that she’s on her deathbed and wants to see her relatives before she dies,” Farzana said as she saw off her mother at the Cantonment Railway Station in Karachi.

Farzana’s mother was not the only one. Several other families came to the railway station to board the Thar Express on Friday. Their relatives, who gathered to see them off, had tears in their eyes as the uncertainty of their return played on their minds.

Many people expressed disappointment at the worsening of ties between India and Pakistan.

“The people of both countries are against war. I have been to India twice and people there treat me with respect,” said Amjad Ali Khan, a resident of Karachi, before leaving for India with his younger brother.

India’s forests have lost at least 110 royal striped cats, including 17 tigress, in the past six years due to several reasons including poaching and natural deaths, according to a government data.

The figures made available under the RTI Act reflects that the royal predators have been unsafe not only in non-protected area but also inside reserves, given that this year alone 14 cases of tiger mortality including four tigress and two cubs have been reported till November.

Of six cases of poachings, three tigers were killed in the last month itself with one each outside Kanha and Khatiya buffer range in Madhya Pradesh, and another in Dudhwa tiger reserve in Uttar Pradesh, according to the data.

Similarly, as many as 30 endangered big cats died in 2007, highest in the past five years, with 16 perishing in reserves while 14 in non-protected areas.

Five big cats died in world famous Corbett Tiger reserve in Uttar Pradesh while Bandipur park in Madhya Pradesh lost two tigress whose death reasons could not be assessed due to completely putrefied status of the body.

During the same period, 14 cases of tiger mortality was reported from outside reserves of which five of the big cats were killed in poaching and three due to poisoning.

A man-eater tiger which had strayed in Chandrapur in Maharashtra Nagpur region had to be shot dead by the forest department late last year.

“These are official figures and the actual figures may be higher,” Delinda Wright, prominent wildlife expert, noted.

The situation was grim in 2006 too when eight tigress and two male striped cats died inside the reserves in various tiger range states.

Mumbai, May 3 (IANS) Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray Saturday renewed his campaign against north Indian migrants as well as film star Amitabh Bachchan saying his supporters will not allow them to destroy “the Maharashtrian culture”. “If the government wants to arrest me let them do so, but only Maharashtra Day will be celebrated in Maharashtra,” said Thackeray addressing a mammoth rally at the Shivaji Park in central Mumbai.

The estranged nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray justified ridiculing Bachchan’s decision to promote Uttar Pradesh. “Since he has lived and flourished in Maharashtra, why can’t he promote this state?” he said.

He also questioned the move to construct a girls school in Uttar Pradesh named after Bachchan’s daughter-in-law and film star Aishwarya Rai.

Thackeray did not spare Bachchan’s wife Jaya for her comments at a press conference in which she had said the only Thackeray whom she knew was Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. He also mocked Railway Minister Lalu Prasad.

In January the MNS cheif had criticised the north Indians, especially people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar living on Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashta, on various issues, including performing Chhath Puja, a festival especially popular in Bihar.

His controversial remarks sparked off violence in different parts of Maharashtra between MNS activists and north Indians. MNS activists had barged into a cinema house exhibiting a Bhojpuri movie and damaged taxis sporting Samajwadi Party flags. One man was killed in the violence.

Days after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) supremo Raj Thackeray questioned actor Amitabh Bachchan’s loyalty to Maharashtra, stirring up a Marathi vs north Indian debate, two youths – supposedly MNS workers – attacked the actor’s residence early on Monday morning.

News agency PTI reports two men on a motorcycle threw glass bottles at Bachchan’s Juhu residence ‘Prateeksha’ and were heard shouting abuses in the direction of ‘Prateeksha’ main gate.

“At around 1:30 am, some cameramen, who were posted outside the bungalow anticipating trouble, heard the abuses and also saw a bottle being thrown at the direction of bungalow,” a media person was quoted as saying by the agency.

But Mumbai police denied the incident. “Apart from the private security guards posted there, we had also deployed our own men at the spot and no such incident has been observed there during the night,” senior police inspector Deepak Katdare of the nearby Juhu police station, was quoted as saying.

Security was stepped up at Prateeksha on Sunday itself following Raj Thackeray’s attack on the superstar for “preferring Uttar Pradesh over Maharashtra” for opening a girls’ college.

Raj Thackeray’s controversial remarks on north Indian population in the state led to clashes in parts of Maharashtra on Sunday. While the state government ordered a high-level probe into the violence, the Uttar Bharatiya Development Forum – an umbrella organisation of various groups of north Indians in the city – called for a protest closure.

Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil announced late on Sunday that the state’s Director General of Police and Mumbai’s Police Commissioner will probe the violence.

Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh had lodged an FIR against Thackeray and others in south Mumbai’s Azad Maidan police station regarding the incident of protest by MNS activists during his press conference on Saturday.

A couple of theatres staging Bhojpuri films outside the metropolis were attacked and five cars were damaged during Sunday’s violence after which 15 MNS and five SP activists were arrested.

n the last few days, Raj, the estranged nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, has repeatedly ridiculed people from north India settled in Mumbai and also Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who is close to the Samajwadi Party, the leading opposition party in Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav held a rally that was also addressed by other leaders of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA), including Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh and his party’s Maharashtra unit chief Abu Asim Azmi.

Yadav pointed out that all Indians have a right to live and work anywhere in the country. “The Samajwadi Party will give a fitting reply to anybody who dares to stop them.”

Deputy Commissioner of Police Niket Kaushik told IANS that police had stepped up security measures following widespread rumours that MNS activists would attack north Indians arriving by trains at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus near the Bandra-Kurla Complex.

Last week, on several fora, Raj Thackeray lashed out at the north Indians on different issues, including performing Chhath Puja, a festival especially popular in Bihar. He demanded that they must celebrate only Maharashtrian festivals.

Raj ridiculed Amitabh Bachchan’s decision to promote Uttar Pradesh as its brand ambassador earlier. “Since he has lived and flourished in Maharashtra, why can’t he promote this state?” he said.

He also questioned the move to construct a girls school in Uttar Pradesh named after Amitabh Bachchan’s daughter-in-law and film star Aishwarya Rai, for which the foundation stone was laid last Sunday.

“Are there no girls in Maharashtra? Why can’t they construct a school here?” he asked.

While the star has refrained from replying to him, his wife and actor Jaya Bachchan said: “For me, Shri Bal Thackeray is a like a father and (his son) Uddhav is like a son. I don’t know any other Thackeray.”

When reporters asked her about the school project, Jaya Bachchan said the Bachchans would gladly construct a school in Maharashtra too if Raj was willing to donate land.

Besides a proposed girls college in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh’s new home here too has been named after Bollywood actress and his friend Amitabh Bachchan’s daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai.

This came to light when Singh took the Bachchan family to his recently built plush bungalow in the Uttar Pradesh capital’s upmarket Vipul Khand of Gomati Nagar Saturday night.

Amitabh Bachchan and his entire family were driven from the Lucknow airport straight to ‘Aishwarya’, where they had dinner and spent the night.

When a reporter confronted Singh with a query about the name of the house, he shot back, ‘Abhishek is like a son to me and Aishwarya my daughter-in-law, so what if I have named my house after her and what if I decide to even gift this house to her?’

He went on to add: ‘You should know that Aishwarya is also another name for Goddess Lakshmi.’