Investigations into Bangalore IISc shooting on

     Kanpur: The Central Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal has said that investigations have already begun into the shoot out incident at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore on Wednesday evening.

   Talking to the media in Kanpur, Jaiswal said investigations have begun and whatever information we will receive, we will let you know. The Centre is in touch with State authorities, who are conducting the investigations. An unidentified gunman fired from an AK- 47 rifle during an international conference at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. Four people were injured and a retired Indian Institute of Technology Delhi professor MC Puri was killed in the shoot out. Talking to reporters Ajay Kumar Singh, Police Commissioner said that some people had seen a man running after opening fire. "Around 7.20 in the evening (local time), people heard firing of shots. Then some people saw a man running and also firing shots. Around four people have been injured, not all at one place. It is difficult to say that whether any one person was being targeted. The person has run away. The combing operation is still on," said Singh. Sukumaran, an eyewitness, said when the delegates were going for dinner, there was firing and he saw one person falling down. Meanwhile, security has been tightened in Hyderabad city following the incident of shoot out in Bangalore. A red alert has been sounded across Bangalore.

Karnataka CM calls meeting to review security situation

    Bangalore: Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh called a high-level meeting of police and other officials here today to examine the security measures in the wake of suspected terrorist attack at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). According to sources, Dharam Singh has ordered the Bangalore police to investigate the case comprehensively. Meanwhile, police in Chennai were put on high alert with many senior officials supervising checking and combing operations. All the entry and exit points were sealed in the city. High security cordon has been thrown at the Secretariat, the Reserve Bank Office, Central Railway Station, as well as arterial roads. According to intelligence sources, Bangalore has for long been on the list of Lashkar militants. Even as authorities say it is too early to determine the involvement of any group, sources have revealed that Bangladesh based terrorist groups are also under the scanner.

Karnataka CM suspects foreign hand behind IISc shooting

     Bangalore: Asserting there was no security lapse during the international seminar at the Indian Institute of Science, Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh said on Thursday that the incident might be a terrorist act. Addressing the media after visiting the site, Dharam Singh said, "We have suspected that it's a terrorist attack, and we will verify which country is behind that attack". Denying any lapse in security, he said terrorist strike could take place despite tight security. Police were doing their best to hunt down the culprits and we are going to trace out the whole thing, the Chief Minister added. The Chief Minister also visited the two hospitals where the injured are taking treatment. Dharam Singh further said that he had spoken to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister Shivraj Patil regarding the attack and they have directed the State to take steps to beef up security.

Slain scientist's body to be brought to Delhi

     New Delhi: The body of retired IIT-Delhi professor, Prof Munish Chandra Puri, killed in a firing at the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) in Bangalore will be brought here by air on Thursday from Bangalore. Prof. Puri's shocked family members arrived in Bangalore on Thursday morning and directly went to the M S Ramaiah Hospital where the body was kept in the mortuary. Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh also visited the hospital and called upon the injured persons in the suspected terrorist shoot out and paid homage to the slain Prof. Puri. BJP General Secretary H N Ananth Kumar also met the injured and paid homage to Prof Puri. Puri, a professor emeritus of Mathematics, died at the IISc on Wednesday night after unidentified gunmen opened indiscriminate fire at researchers walking out of the J N Tata auditorium where an international seminar on 'Operations research applications in infrastructure development' was held. Puri, the head of the Operational Research Society of India, had gone to Bangalore on Friday last for the seminar and was to return on Thursday. Puri is survived by wife Raksha, son Saurabh and daughter Shelley.

Condolence meet at IIT Delhi to mourn professor's killing

     New Delhi: Colleagues, professors and students of the killed retired professor of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, MC Puri, held a condolence meeting to mourn his death here on Thursday. Puri's colleagues, who defined him as a down-to-earth man and apt in his field of mathematics, were in a state of shock after hearing the news. DP Kothari, Deputy Director, IIT Delhi, said they would spruce up security at their institutes across the country. "After this incident, the security will be beefed up across all the institutes. Though it will be in every institutes, we will also spruce up security here," said Kothari. But his colleagues in the Mathematics department, defining it as a personal loss, said they feel insecure that such an incident occurred at a top science university. "At such a place, in such a conference, if such terror attacks happen then it is definitely very bad. And, plus there is a sense of insecurity, it is definitely there," said Nagabhushnam, Mathematics professor. Puri was killed in a suspected militant attack on the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore on Wednesday night in which at least four people were wounded. Puri along with three academics and a laboratory technician had just attended a seminar when they were shot from a range of 10-20 yards.

    Police, meanwhile, ruled out any link of the shooting with the arrival of Abu Salem, accused of involvement in a series of bombings in Mumbai in 1993 that killed 260 people, to the software hub for brain mapping and lie detector tests. Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party president Lal Krishna Advani condemned the killings, saying it was the wrong policy approach of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in talks with Pakistan, which had led to a sudden spurt in violence across the country. "I believe that the terrorists incidents that have happened in Jammu and Kashmir, Ayodhya and yesterday's incident in Bangalore, show their wrong policy in talks with Pakistan," Advani said while addressing his party's national convention in Mumbai. Advani said the Centre was continuing peace talks with Pakistan despite the escalation in violence which was a wrong approach.

IIM Lucknow not to beef up security

    Lucknow: The Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow has no plans to revise or beef up security within the premises following the apprehended terrorist attack at Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore on Wednesday. Talking to the media, Sushil Kumar, Professor-in-charge, Corporate Communications and Media Relations of the institution said that the management as of now had no plans to revise the security. "There are no serious plans to revise the security. We do not want to scare the faculty. We don't think it is that serious issue, we are taking it smoothly," said Sushil Kumar. Following yesterday's attack at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, in which a former IIT Delhi Professor M C Puri was killed and four others were injured, IITs authorities had said that they would spruce up security at their institutes across the country.

Arjun Singh mourns death of Prof MC Puri

     New Delhi: Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has mourned the tragic death of Prof. M.C. Puri, who was killed in an attack on at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at Bangalore yesterday. In his condolence message to Mrs. Raksha Puri, wife of late Prof. Puri, the Minister said: "I am unable to express my deep grief in his untimely death. The entire nation shares with you the sorrow of losing a noble son of India. I express my heart felt condolence and pray to God Almighty to give you strength to bear this irreparable loss". Unidentified terrorists had attacked the IISc at around 7.20 p.m. (IST) on Wednesday evening when an international science seminar was going on there, killing Puri, former Mathematics Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, and injuring four others.