Srinagar: A former militant was critically injured when a separatist guerrilla fired at him when he was travelling in a bus in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district yesterday, police said. Three other passengers were also injured.
Police said a guerrilla travelling in the vehicle from Pattan town got down at Sangrama on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road in Baramulla and immediately fired at Abdul Khaliq Dar, an ex-militant travelling in the same vehicle.
“Dar sustained a serious bullet injury in his neck while three other people in the vehicle including a labour from Bihar, the conductor of the vehicle and a local passenger sustained injuries,” a senior police officer said.
He said all the injured were taken to hospital and area surrounded to trace the militant, he added.
Manmohan to hold his last plan
panel meeting
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold a meeting of the Planning Commission today to take stock of the economic situation.
Prime minister is the ex-officio chairman of the plan panel, and this will probably be the last meeting of the plan panel under his chairmanship.
The term of the panel is co-terminus with the government. The general elections are underway and Manmohan Singh has ruled himself out of the race to head the new government.
According to sources, all members of the panel are likely to attend the meeting, which is seen as a farewell meeting for Manmohan Singh, who has been heading the panel for the last 10 years.
Kerala artiste M V Devan dead
Kochi: Multi-faceted artiste M V Devan passed away here yesterday, his family said. He was 86. Devan was a painter, sculptor, writer, art critic and orator, all rolled into one.
A highly gifted personality, he was also a former chairman of the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi from 1974 to 1977.
Born in Kannur district in 1928, he left for Madras in 1946 to study painting.
He learned the basics of painting at the Government School of Arts and Crafts in Madras under Debi Prasad Roy Chowdhury and KCS Paniker.
Over the years, he won prestigious awards like the Kerala Sahitya Akademi’s Vayalar Ramavarma Award and Malayattoor Award to name a few. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy paid glowing tributes to the artiste, saying he had brought laurels to the state through his work.
IANS
