Friday, November 8, 2002, Chandigarh, India
Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

4 pro-Badal members debarred from voting
Petitions filed against Tohra, 7 others
Amritsar, November 7
The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) today suffered a big jolt when the Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission restrained four pro-Badal SGPC members from ‘functioning and performing duty’ as Shiromani Committee members forthwith till November 26. They can’t vote in the crucial annual election of the SGPC executive, scheduled for November 12.

Capt Kanwaljit, Bibi detained
Halwara (Ludhiana), November 7
Former Punjab Finance Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh and former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur are likely to be booked for allegedly kidnapping SGPC member Bibi Harbans Kaur Sukhana. 
Former Punjab Finance Minister Kanwaljit Singh questions Jagraon SSP M. S. Chhina about the validity of his detention while former SGPC chief Jagir Kaur looks on near Halwara on Thursday. — Tribune photo

‘Jail bharo’ stir deferred till Nov 27
Badal whisks away Kewal Singh
Alamgir, November 7
Even as the jail bharo agitation of the SAD has been postponed to November 27, the political affairs committee of the party today refused to have any truck with the seven-member committee and also decided to get SGPC members held “captive” by the government released.

BSP suspends rebel MLA
Lucknow, November 7
Rebel BSP legislator Jai Prakash Yadav, who met Uttar Pradesh Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri alleging ‘victimisation’ at the hands of the Mayawati government, was today suspended from the party.

CONG CM'S MEETING AT MOUNT ABU
Gehlot to score low, Capt high
Mount Abu, November 7
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will have a lot to explain over the “starvation deaths” in his state when Congress President Sonia Gandhi takes stock of the performance of the states under Congress rule at the conference of Congress Chief Ministers which begins here tomorrow.

In video People of Sivan say they are facing the worst drought in a decade due to scant rains for the fourth continuous year. (28k, 56k)

  Punjab page: Amarinder to unfold new plans
                              Congress CMs’ meeting at Mount Abu

7 hurt in fresh Ahmedabad violence
Ahmedabad, November 7 After a relative calm for the past few weeks here, violence broke out in the communally sensitive area of Jamalpur following Divali revelry last night in which seven persons were injured, some shops and houses gutted and vehicles damaged in arson.	A jawan of the Rapid Action Force patrols near a burnt shop in the Jamalpur area of Ahmedabad which witnessed fresh violence on Thursday.  — PTI photo

Centre assures EC on forces for Gujarat
New Delhi, November 7
Dismissing reports of confrontation between the Home Ministry and the Election Commission on the deployment of Central forces, the Centre today assured the commission that adequate forces would be made available “well in time” for the Assembly poll in Gujarat.

Laden paid $ 15 m to buy freedom
New Delhi, November 7
Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is learnt to have coughed up a whopping amount of $ 15 million (nearly Rs 75 crore) to buy freedom from his entrapment in Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan late last year.

Jaguar crash toll eight, Air Marshal visits scene Ambala, November 7 A senior Air Force officer today visited the Jaguar crash site to take stock of the situation even as the death toll rose to eight.  Air Marshal R C Mahadik extends sympathies to Mr Murari Lal, who lost four members of his family in the Jaguar crash in Ambala on Thursday. — photo Neeraj Chopra