Fire in Ananda Bazar Patrika office
One killed

CALCUTTA, Sept 3 (UNI) — A devastating fire engulfed the building of the Ananda Bazar Patrika Ltd a leading group of newspapers and journals, early today causing death of a trapped employee and huge loss of property and documents.

Several unconscious Fire Brigade personnel were also admitted to hospital.

Joint Commissioner of police Gautam Chakrabarti, said the fire which stared at around 4.30 a.m. on the third floor of the five-storeyed building raged for eight hours as Fire Brigade personnel had a tough time in controlling the blaze. The entire third floor was gutted.

He said at least 32 fire engines with cranes and turntable ladders were pressed into service and though the blaze was controlled at 1 pm nobody could enter the building due to excessive heat.

Mr Chakrabarti said the cause of the fire was not yet known and they would have to work for another 24 hours to ascertain the same. He said forensic experts would soon be on their job.

Fire Brigade men recovered the body of the Ananda Bazar employee who died of asphyxiation, Mr Chakrabarti said. He had been identified as Kinkar Jana, he added.

Cracks had appeared on the top floor of the building which had the office canteen while a portion of the ceiling of the third floor had collapsed, Mr Chakrabarti said, adding the cave-in hindered their entry into the affected places.

The fire spread fast owing to the presence of a huge quantity of paper. It has destroyed the computers, back up data and other things. The loss will be in several crores. We have to break open the glass window panes from outside with water force and because the floor's cubicled interior it is more difficult to enter," a Fire Brigage officer told UNI. There was shortage of water supply in the area hampering the fire fighting operation.

Columns of smoke billowed out of the building at 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street off central avenue in the heart of the city since early morning. The building houses the offices of the largest Bengali daily Ananda Bazar Patrika.The Telegraph, Sunday, Literary Bengali magazine Desh, children's magazine Anandamela, film magazine Anandalok Businessworld, Sportsworld, women's magazine Sananda and Ananda Bazar. The well-stocked library of the Ananda Bazar group on the second floor was also affected, an employee said.

West Bengal Fire Service Minister Pratim Chatterjee, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Congress leader Sidhartha Sankar Roy and Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi among others visited the spot.

The West Bengal Government today ordered a departmental inquiry into the causes leading to a devastating fire in the Ananda Bazar Patrika office building this morning.

State Fire Services Minister Pratim Chatterjee, who visited the site, later told mediapersons that the name and formation of the committee would be announced by Tuesday.

4,000 Pak Opposition activists held

ISLAMABAD, Sept 3 (PTI) — The Nawaz Sharif government has launched a massive crackdown against Opposition parties rounding up over 4,000 activists amid fears of largescale violence during the Opposition-sponsored general strike against government policies in Sindh province tomorrow.

While Opposition leaders have warned against "another split of the country" in the wake of government action, largescale arrests of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) activists continued with more than 4,077 political workers rounded up till this morning from different cities of Sindh, according to figures provided by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights of Pakistan.

Former Premier Benazir Bhutto's PPP and ethnic party Muttahida Qaumi Movement, backed by other parties, have called for the strike to protest what they alleged "dictatorial rule" of the Sharif government.

The strike coinciding with another protest called by traders on the same day over the imposition of 15 per cent general sales tax.

The police said around 800 persons, most of them political workers, had been detained in Karachi alone.

Leaders from almost every Opposition party held a rare joint meeting in Lahore yesterday to condemn government policies in Sindh province and warned that it would result in, "dismemberment of the country" like the separation of Bangladesh in 1971.

2 MQM activists shot dead

KARACHI, Sept 3 (AP) — Thousands of police and paramilitary personnel sealed off a neighbourhood Karachi today to stop an ethnic-based party from staging an anti-government rally.

They used water tankers, buses and trucks to cordon off a 3-km area. Eyewitnesses said the Burns Road neighbourhood, a congested middle-class and business district, appeared to be under siege.

Policemen were deployed on the doorstep of apartment buildings and business establishments to force people to stay in doors and prevent people from gathering in the area to stage their rally.

The police said it had orders to shoot "trouble makers".

There were reports that the police fired bullets into the air after several activists shouting anti-government slogans gathered nearby the police barricades.

The police siege was to prevent the Muttaheda Quami Movement (MQM) from holding a rally to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

"What kind of democracy is this?" asked Aftab Sheikh, an MQM leader, "People are not even allowed to exercise their basic right of expression."

Earlier today the police shot and killed two MQM activists.

The two men were killed in a western neighbourhood of Karachi, a MQM stronghold.

The MQM along with 15 other opposition parties have called for a nationwide strike tomorrow in an attempt to shut the country down to force Sharif to step down.

QUETTA: Meanwhile, according to an AFP report from Quetta three persons were killed and 15 injured today when Pakistani paramilitary forces fired at demonstrators in southwestern Baluchistan province, residents and officials said.

The incident occurred at Surab, some 160 km south of the provincial capital, Quetta.

Local administration officials said the forces acted in self-defence after a mob opened fire at them.

Residents said the troops fired without provocation on some 200 unarmed demonstrators who were demanding the dismissal of a local official.