BOMBS IN CALCUTTA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 268, 26 August 1930, Page 5

BOMBS IN CALCUTTA

POLICE OFFICER’S CAR. THE CHAFFEUR WOUNDED. ONE OF ASSAILANTS KILLED. (United Press Association—Copyright.) DELHI, August 25. Bombs were flung at the car of Sir Charles Tegart (Police Commissioner) as he was driving in Balliousie Square, in the centre of the European business quarter of Calcuttaat 11 o clock tins morning. Sir Charles was not lruit, but his driver was wounded. A second assailant was killed, apparently by the premature bursting of a bomb in Ins hand The Commissioner leapt from his car and chased one assailant, who was~ subsequently arrested. He was carrying two other bombs. It was believed there- were four assailants Dalhousie Square is tlie busiest shopping centre im the city. The four assailants were of the Bengali student class, about 25 years old. One is d4ad, one is wounded, and the.remaining two have been arrested, v Tlie incident is causing great excitement among the Europeans. breach of forest laws. v POLICE FIRE ON A MOB. DELHI, August 25. A serious situation is reported in the Betul district in the central provinces. , , , . . , ■ ~ The police, when attempting to . airest Cajan, a member of a practically aboriginal tribe called Gonds, for a breach of the forest laws, found then man surrounded by several hundred Gonds. Several police were injured. The police fired, temporarily dispersing the Gonds, of whom one was killed. Tlie Gonds are reassembling m large numbers. Fifty armed police have been dispatched from NWgpur. It is noteworthy that the activity of Congress agitators in the central provinces has taken the special form of encouraging breaches of the forest lavs.

OFFICIAL REVIEW OF POSITION.

AX' IMPROVEMENT GENERALLY

(Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) k LONDON, August 20. In the weeklv review by the Government of India of the situation in India it is stated that by August 19 the Afridi lashkar had dispersed, although a few small parties remained m the emissaries from British territory are, however, reported to have Sssed up Bara Valley to urge the Afridis to renew hostilities. About 3000 Afridis were present at the usual Friday jirga at Bagh on August 22, and an aeroplane doing reconnaissance there was fired upon. • On the northern border of the Peshawar district the Haji of Turangzai and his emissaries have remained active among the upper Mohmands and Utman Khel. . , , A iirga of two sections of tlie latter tribe interviewed the Deputy-Commis-sioner on August 16. They undertook to commit no more offences against the Government, to refrain from joining any hostile lashkar, and to refuse passage to a hostile lashkar of othei tribes. In view of this undertaking, 11 prisoners, captured at Pallai, were boy/ver, that tlie Haji has met with, a good deal of success among the upper Mohmands, and possibly some part of the Utman Khel tribe, and still has great hopes of raising a lashkar to attack the Peshawar district by way of Gandao, on the Kurram border. . , Intensive bombing of Massozzi ana Para Cham Kannis had a very good effect. At Massozai a jirga of one section of the Para Chamkannis came into Parachiyar to make overtures tor settlement. , , The agitation, however, has spread to other tribes. . . , An August 19 Ahmadzai Ghilzai collected a lashkar on Peiwar Kotal, in the neighbourhood of Utsar and Baigawiswar. Reconnaissance aeroplanes were heavily fired upon from these two points, and. militia pickets in the uppoi Kurram were fired on from Utsar. Thanks to the excellent defensive measures adopted by the Kurram/ militia and the village levies, together with the successful measures adopted by the local Afghan authorities to restrain the tribes 'on their side of the border, the hostiles were dispersed after a few days without further committing themselves. provincial reports from the first fortnight of August continue to show marked improvement in most provinces. , „ , . £ In Madras the number of breaches or the law and consequent prosecutions continues to fall. In Bengal the improvement lias been so marked that it is possible to discern a tendency to return to normal conditions. There lias been less picketing, particularly in Calcutta, and t}ie movement generally lias much weakened. A good sign in several districts is tlie increased attendance at school, and the boycott of educational institutions seems "to be falling. In the United Provinces the chief feature of the fortnight was the attack on educational institutions, from which Mohammedans, however, have kept aloof. There lias been very senous interference with studies at all Allahabad, Benares, and Lucknow universities, but a recent report in the Press states that the students at the first-mentioned university have revolted against this interference with then future careers. The Punjab records definite and practically universal decline in Congress activities, and the movement is monhund. The situation in Bombay City is more stable, so far as law and order are concerned, but the economic condition tends to deteriorate, and more mills have been' closed. The above record of improvement must he qualified in certain respects. The boycott of foreign goods is still effective in many towns, and picketing, although on the decline, is still practiced to a considerable extent. Though, therefore, the situation in most provinces is distinctly easier, theie is no province in which conditions are normal or in which it- can be safely said that some activities of the ci\ il disobedience movement may not assume fresh vigour. , , There has fortunately been marked improvement in Sind, where the communal situation was reported last weel? to he serious. The position is now under control. , , , , , An attempt was made to-day to kill

Sir Charles Tegart (Police Commissioner for Calcutta). Two bombs were flung at his car as he was motoring to his office. They exploded in the road, wounding the chauffeur and damaging the car. Sir Charles Tegart himself Was unhurt. Leaping from the ear lie drew a revolver and shot one of his assailants dead. Then he chased another of his assailants, who was captured bv a police sergeant. The third assailant was wounded by the explosion. Sir Charles Tegart. who is 49 vears of age. has been in the India Police since 1901.