Latest States and territories of India Stories

RANCHI, India (Reuters) - Hundreds of Maoist rebels on Monday seized a passenger train in eastern India with around 200 people on board, police said. A Maoist rebel on the train pulled the emergency cord, forcing the train to stop in a densely forested area in Latehar district, 100 miles west of Ranchi, the state capital of Jharkhand state.

By Rina ChandranMUMBAI, India (Reuters) - The sign outside Leopold cafe on Mumbai's Colaba Causeway has just received a makeover: it is bigger, bolder, and harder to miss amid the clutter of signs on the bustling road lined with shops and restaurants.That is a good thing for the dozens of foreign tourists who come looking for Leopold, clutching a thick blue-and-red paperback which has catapulted the popular bar and restaurant to the top of to-do lists of tourists.Leopold, whose beer and food...

By Sharat Pradhan VARANASI, India (Reuters) - India's ancient holy city of Varanasi shut down on Wednesday in a protest against bomb blasts in a Hindu temple and a railway station which killed 15 people, but there was no sectarian backlash. Armed police mounted a strict vigil during the shut down, called by Hindu groups after Varanasi, one of the holiest pilgrimage centers for India's majority Hindus, was hit by two bomb blasts within minutes around dusk on Tuesday. No one claimed...

By Sharat Pradhan VARANASI, India (Reuters) - Armed police in India mounted vigil in Varanasi and Hindu groups called for a strike but the streets of the ancient holy city where bomb blasts killed 15 people were calm on Wednesday despite fears of a backlash. Tuesday's blasts in Varanasi, one of the holiest pilgrimage centers for the country's majority Hindus, also wounded dozens of people and came barely a week before Holi, the Hindu festival of colors. It sparked fears of sectarian...

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - At least four people were killed and over a dozen wounded in two separate explosions on Tuesday in the Hindu pilgrimage town of Varanasi in northern India, police said. Television reports said up to 12 may have died. "So far four people have died, 17 are hospitalized with injuries," V.N. Rai, inspector-general of police in Uttar Pradesh state, where Varanasi is located, told Reuters. "All entry points to the area have been sealed." One explosion was reported...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Dozens of people were hurt in at least two separate explosions on Tuesday in the north Indian pilgrimage town of Varanasi, an official said. One explosion was reported in a packed Hindu temple and another occurred in the railway station, a federal interior ministry official told Reuters. Temple-studded Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh state, is one of the holiest cities for India's majority Hindu population.

By Krittivas Mukherjee MUMBAI, India (Reuters) - For eight years, Daya Nayak killed with impunity -- sometimes with his pistol but often with an AK-47 automatic rifle -- as he bumped off people suspected to be gangsters or involved in acts of terrorism in Mumbai. These days, the policeman just kills time. Once the poster boy of Mumbai's police force and eulogized by Bollywood filmmakers, Nayak helped to dramatically curb organized crime in India's financial capital, breaking the back...

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Police in Indian Kashmir fired teargas on Tuesday to disperse hundreds of Muslims protesting the magazine publication of a picture of a playing card showing an image of Mecca, police and witnesses said. They said at least 10 protesters were detained. More than 400 Muslim youths gathered near Lal Chowk, in the heart of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, shouting "La Ilaha Illallah" (there is no god but Allah) ... down with India Today." In its...

By Kamil Zaheer NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched a peace conference on Saturday with pro-India parties and minority Hindu groups in restive Kashmir, but the talks are seen as being undermined by a boycott by separatists. Singh opened the conference by calling upon those boycotting the meeting to join talks in the future. "I am also confident that others who are not here will eventually join us once they see the obvious merits in sharing ideas and...

By Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Shops and businesses were shut in most parts of Indian Kashmir on Friday in a protest against the killing of four boys, ahead of a meeting called by the Indian prime minister to discuss peace moves in the region. Kashmiri separatists who are boycotting the New Delhi conference called the strike, blaming the Indian army for the deaths of the boys, aged 8 between 18, earlier this week. Police said the boys were killed when suspected militants...