A man who kept 19 people including 17 children hostage in a Mumbai studio on Thursday was shot dead by a policeman just as the gunman was about to aim at one of the hostages, sources said.  The accused, Rohit Arya, invited all of them to the studio under the pretext of an audition for a web series before he announced his intention. He was armed with an airgun. The hostage crisis that unfolded in Powai lasted three hours.  Many praised Assistant Sub-Inspector Amol Waghmare, whose brave and timely action ended the hostage situation involving children between 10 and 12 years old. He has been called the "Hero of Powai" for risking his life to save the children.  The police in Powai received information at 1.45 pm that a man had lured children to a studio and held them hostage. Arya, armed with an airgun that can be lethal if shot at soft tissue from close range, had installed sensors on the studio's windows to detect anyone who may try to launch a rescue.  The police managed ...
The Manipur Police have named an armed group whose members call themselves "village defence volunteers" as responsible for the attack on the house of a senior police officer in the state capital Imphal on Tuesday night.  Following the attack, the state called in central forces including the army to Imphal city, from where the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act, or AFSPA, had been removed years ago. This law allows the security forces to conduct operations anywhere and arrest anyone without a warrant. The AFSPA is active in the hill areas due to presence of insurgents of several ethnicities along the border with troubled Myanmar.  The police in a statement on Thursday said members of the Arambai Tenggol, a Meitei youth organisation whose members face allegations of looting weapons from state armouries, "carried out a targeted attack " on the house of senior police officer Moirangthem Amit Singh, who along with his team had seized two stolen cars on Tuesday.  This was ...