BLOODY MESS: CPI (M)'s Dhupguri office

The CPI(M) leadership was quick to dismiss the attack as the "work of outsiders"-a synonym for the foreign hand. But the armed assailants who burst into a CPI(M) district committee office in Dhupguri in north Bengal and gunned down five prominent leaders last week, were most likely insurgents of the Kamtapuri Liberation Organisation (KLO)-a violent, breakaway unit of the separatist Kamtapur People's Party (KPP). The KLO has close links with militants in other states-particularly the United Liberation Front of Asom and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland-and with the Pakistani ISI. But by no definition does it qualify as "outsiders".

The CPI(M)'s rash reaction simply underscores its growing threat perception. Last year, KPP leader Atul Roy declared he would root out the Left Front from north Bengal in the assembly polls, if necessary with the help of the Trinamool Congress. Mamata Banerjee's party has been the most sympathetic of the mainstream parties to KPP's statehood demand. Roy's cadres, far less the KLO, have little faith in electoral politics and prefer less-pacifist methods. The Dhupguri attack is hardly the first on the CPI(M), and it certainly won't be the last.

-Labonita Ghosh

SPOTLIGHT
Record Run

Mithali Raj

Playing in her third Test and the first against England, Mithali Raj, not yet 20, scored a scintillating 214 to set a new world record. "I crossed that mark nervously by scoring off the last ball bowled on the third day," she recalls. Her score is the fifth double century in women's Test cricket. The previous highest was by Australia's Karen Rolton, who made 209 against England in Leeds last year.

Raj received a standing ovation when the announcement was made at Taunton. Her classic knock, which included 19 boundaries and came off 407 balls in 598 minutes, enabled India make a record 464 runs in the first innings in reply to England's 329. India had a lead of 135 runs in the four-day match that ended in a tame draw.

There is nothing tame, however, in Raj's achievement. Her innings makes her the first Indian woman to score a double century, improving on Sandhya Agarwal's 190 against England at Worcester way back in 1986. Her partnership of 157 for the seventh wicket with Jhulan Goswami (62) is also a world record. Another first: Hyderabad has the honour of being home to the highest Test scorers in Indian cricket-V.V.S. Laxman's 281 against Australia in Kolkata last year is still the best among men. The sweetest prize for Raj perhaps came from the team manager, who had promised £5 (Rs 370) for a century. She got £10. Her father gives part of the credit to her former coach. "Mithali owes a lot to Sampath Kumar who died five years ago," says Dorai Raj, who played for the Services.

-Amarnath K. Menon

PetXpress

Kolkata's Compassionate Crusaders for Animals has organised India's first mobile operation theatre for pet animals, PetXpress. The air-conditioned van has an adjustable operation table, a convertible fridge-cum-heater-quite a dream come true for a vet-and for the mute animals. PetXpress also tackles depression in pets. It never got so good for man's trusted friend.

Suman K. Chakrabarti

SIGNPOSTS

AWARDED: To mathematician Madhu Sudan of the MIT, USA, the 2002 Rolf Nevanlinna Prize at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing.

DIED: Prashant Bundela, 31, IAF squadron leader, in Pune, of injuries sustained when his MiG 21 crashed in April this year. Bundela had shot down a Pakistani Atlantique aircraft in August 1999.

SELECTED: Fali S. Nariman, jurist and Rajya Sabha member, for the Justice Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation.

APPOINTED: P. Shankar, secretary, Planning Commission, as central vigilance commissioner succeeding N. Vittal.

ELECTED: George Fernandes, defence minister, as Samata Party president.