Polling agent among many killed as West Bengal votes in Panchayat elections

News Network
July 8, 2023

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Kolkata, July 8: Several people were killed in election-related violence in West Bengal as voting was underway on Saturday for the three-tier panchayat polls in the state, officials said.

The polling started at 7 am in 73,887 seats in the rural areas of the state with 5.67 crore people deciding the fate of around 2.06 lakh candidates, they said.

BJP polling agent Madhab Biswas was allegedly killed in Falimari gram panchayat in Coochbehar district, they said.

The BJP alleged that when Biswas tried to enter the polling booth he was stopped by TMC supporters, and as the situation escalated, they killed him. The TMC denied the allegations.

The supporter of an Independent candidate died in the Kadambagachi area in North 24 Paraganas district after he was beaten up overnight, police said.

The deceased was identified as 41-year-old Abdullah. He died while undergoing treatment at a local hospital in the morning, Superintendent of Police Bhaskar Mukherjee said.

Protesting against the killing, locals blocked the Taki Road in the early hours but they were removed by the police.

A TMC worker was killed in Murshidabad district's Kapasdanga area overnight in poll-related violence. The deceased was identified as Babar Ali, officials said.

The ruling TMC said that two of its workers were killed in Rejinagar and Khargram in Murshidabad district, and another person in Tufanganj in Coochbehar district.

"The polling started peacefully, but Congress, BJP and CPI(M) are attacking TMC workers since last night. Three of our workers have died in Rejinagar, Tufanganj and Khargram. And, two of our workers were injured in Domkal. Where are the central forces?" TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh asked.

The brother of a TMC leader was killed in a clash with Congress supporters in Malda district, police said.

The incident happened in Jisharattola in Manikchak police station area. The deceased was identified as Malek Sheikh, they said.

The TMC alleged that the husband of one of its candidates was shot at in Nadia district's Narayanpur area by CPI(M) supporters, a charge denied by the opposition party.

Allegations of attempts to loot ballot boxes and attack on voters were made by all the parties. Clashes were also reported from other parts of the state.

CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim shared a video of open ballot boxes lying in the field, tweeting, "Vote is over! Condition of the ballots, ballot boxes in one of the booths. Btw this pic is from Diamond Harbour."

At least 600 companies of central forces have been deployed for the elections along with around 70,000 state police.

Sharing a video on Twitter, BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar alleged that ballot boxes were set ablaze at a booth in the Coochbehar district with poll officials having fled the scene.

Governor CV Ananda Bose visited parts of the North 24 Parganas district and interacted with the people.

There are 63,229-gram panchayat seats and 9,730 panchayat samiti seats in 22 districts, while 928 zilla parishad seats in 20 districts as Darjeeling and Kalimpong have a two-tier system with Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and Siliguri Sub-divisional Council at the top.

Long queues outside polling booths were seen as early as 6 am with people turning out early amid the intermittent rains.

The ruling TMC is contesting all the 928 seats in zilla parishads, 9,419 seats in panchayat samitis and 61,591 seats in gram panchayats. The BJP has fielded candidates in 897 zilla parishad seats, 7,032 panchayat samiti seats and 38,475 seats in gram panchayats.

The CPI(M) is fighting 747 zilla parishad seats, 6,752 panchayat samiti seats and 35,411-gram panchayat seats. The Congress is contesting 644 zilla parishad seats, 2,197 panchayat samiti seats and 11,774 gram panchayat seats.

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News Network
October 21,2024

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Mangaluru: Forest officials successfully captured a leopard that strayed into the kitchen of a house in Akkasaligara Keri, Mulki, on the outskirts of Mangaluru, during the early hours of Sunday, October 20.

Following multiple complaints from residents about leopard sightings, forest department officials had placed cages at various locations in Mulki. According to Deputy RFO Manjunath Ganiga, locals had reported spotting a leopard in the area, prompting the department to set up a cage about a kilometer from the affected house.

At approximately 10 p.m., the leopard entered the house and made its way into the kitchen. The family quickly locked the kitchen door and contacted the forest department for assistance. The forest officials, using a cage and a net, managed to trap the leopard around 2:45 a.m. The animal was later examined by veterinarians and released back into the wild.

Locals suspect that up to three leopards may be roaming the area.

The operation to capture the leopard was led by RFO Kiran Kumar, with assistance from Deputy RFOs Nagesh Billava and Manjunath Ganiga, along with forest department staff members Chandrashekar and Shankar.

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News Network
October 29,2024

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At least 60 people, including children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on several areas in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, the Lebanese Health Ministry says.

The ministry said at least 58 people were also wounded in the attacks on 12 areas in the Bekaa Valley on Monday.

Of the 60 killed, at least 16 deaths were recorded in al-Alaq, west of Baalbek city, the ministry added.

The casualty figures were preliminary and are expected to rise as rescue efforts were still ongoing, according to to the ministry.

Baalbek governor Bachir Khodr denounced the attacks on the area as the "most violent" since the start of the Israeli aggression.

Israel has been targeting Lebanon since October 2023, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah has been responding to the aggression with numerous retaliatory operations, including one with a hypersonic ballistic missile, targeting the occupied Palestinian territories.

Since late September, Israel has escalated its strikes against Hezbollah, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and a number of its senior figures.

At least 2,710 people have been killed by Israeli fire, and 12,592 others wounded since the clashes began last year, the health ministry says.

The Lebanese resistance movement has vowed to keep up its operations against Israel as long as the Israeli regime continues its Gaza war, which has so far killed at least 43,020 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

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News Network
October 27,2024

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The Israeli regime’s forces have carried out intense bombing raids against six buildings in the city of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 45 people.

Dozens more were also wounded after the raids targeted the structures, including a house belonging to a Palestinian family named as Abu Shidiq, on Saturday.

The attacks came as the severity of the regime’s aggression has forced the Palestinian Civil Defense to cease its activities in the northern side of the coastal sliver, leaving civilians there to their own devices.

Commenting on the situation, Director-General of the Gaza Health Ministry, Medhat Abbas said more than 900 Palestinians had been killed over the past weeks during the Israeli campaign that has targeted the northern areas.

Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last functioning hospital in the north, has been a special focus of the campaign that has either killed all of the facility’s doctors or forced them to flee, with the exception of three physicians, who remain there, he added.

“The occupation is committing genocide by destroying the health system in Gaza,” Abbas noted.

The regime embarked on implementing a so-called “Generals’ Plan” in northern Gaza earlier in the month, deploying hundreds of military vehicles and thousands of forces with immense firepower towards its realization.

The plan seeks to tighten the regime’s siege against the areas, cut off humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians inside, and label those who remain there as combatants so it could target and kill them after declaring the areas "closed military zones.”

The plan is part of a genocidal war that the regime launched against the Gaza Strip last October, during which it has killed more than 42,924 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded another 100,833.

Also on Saturday, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil rights group, called on the United States, the regime’s biggest supporter, to stop the “systematic extermination of an entire population” in Gaza.

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