Free facts and sacred comment

3

Shoib Akhtar must be thanking his stars that he was not part of the failed Pakistani world cup campaign. One he can sit smug along with Asif telling him, "well the outcome would have been different, had we been there" but more importantly he has saved himself from being subject to endless scrutiny. The moment it was said that Pakistan Coach Bob Woolmer was strangled to death and that the Pakistani team was also being questioned, Akhtar would have found his way into millions of living rooms. Remember those visuals in which Akhtar is seen pushing Woolmer and also the news that the late Woolmer had denied-that Shoib had once slapped him. "Facts are sacred and comment is free?" This was murder inside Wolmer's room with no eyewitness around, unless of course the Police finds an approver amongst the murderers. Circumstantial evidence supported by witnesses to the circumstances that led....

To Bijapur via Nandigram

12

In times of the great Indian economic boom Rs 1500 a month is still worth risking your life for. Of the fifty five people butchered by naxalites in Bijapur in Chhattisgarh 39 were Special Police Officers (SPOs) and 16 were from the Chhattisgarh Armed Force. The number of dead SPOs can increase as more than one dozen are critically injured. Don't get misled by the word officer as these SPOs get a meager Rs 1500 per month from the government and are occasionally armed. They work as police informers and are drawn from the local tribal population. In no way did the SPOs represent state power but still became naxal targets. The naxal attack happened early morning on March 15, just a day after police shot dead 14 people in Nandigram in West Bengal. But somehow everyone including the media has got stuck up with Nandigram while....