Sri Lanka-India Talks

Esmond Wickremesinghe, special envoy of Sri Lankan President J R Jayewardene, who is now attending the South Asian Regional Cooperation (SARC) meeting at Thimphu, would meet Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi on his way back to Colombo from Bhutan. The English daily, Island, said Wickremesinghe was going to India to “clear the air between Colombo and New Delhi” following the strong exchange of words that took place between the two countries after Minister of State for External Affairs Khurshed Alam Khan’s statement on the ethnic problem in the island nation.

Custody Death

Mohinder Singh, one of the three suspected terrorists caught at West Patel Nagar, died in police custody. The suspect had apparently been tortured to death. Mohinder Singh alias Khalsa was brought dead to the Lohia hospital at 4.15 pm. Yet, at 4.55 pm, the police told the court that he could not be produced for remand because he was in hospital “refusing food and water.”

No Ban On Quran

Justice B C Basak of the Calcutta High Court dismissed the petition for banning the Quran. When the petition came up for hearing, Justice Basak ordered that since the matter had been assigned to him, he would hear it from the beginning. All previous orders for affidavits were thereby revoked, he said.