BOMBS IN CALCUTTA

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 284, 27 August 1930, Page 11

BOMBS IN CALCUTTA

Thrown at Sir C. Tegart CHIEF OF POLICE One Assailant Dead OTHERS ARRESTED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. Delhi, August 25. An attempt was made to-day to kill Sir Charles Tegart, Police Commissioner of Calcutta. Two bombs were flung at the car as Sir Charles was driving in Dalhousie Square, the centre of the European business quarters of Calcutta, at 11 a.m. in the morning. Sir Charles Tegart was unhurt, but the driver was wounded. One of the assailants was killed, apparently by the premature bursting of a bomb in his hand. The Police Chief leapt from the car and chased one assailant, who was subsequently arrested. The man was carrying two other bombs. There w-ere four assailants, of the Benell student class, about 25 years old. One is dead, one wounded, perhaps dead, and the remaining two were arrested.

The incident is causing great excitement among the Europeans, and little business is being done. Sir Charles Tegart, who is 49, has been in the Indian Police since 1901.

GENERALLY QUIETER

Report on Situation TROUBLES ON FRONTIER British Wireless. Rugby, August 25. In the weekly appreciation 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 still remained in the district. Congress emissaries from British territory, however, are reported to have passed up the 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 Hadji of Turangzai and his emissaries have remained active among the Upper Mohmands and Utman Khel. A jirga of two sections of the latter tribe interviewed the Deputy-Commissioner 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 any hostile lashkar of other tribes. In view of this undertaking their eleven prisoners captured at Pallai were released.

It is clear, however, that the Haji lias 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 an intensive bombing of Massozai" and the Para Chamkannis had very good effect. A Massozai jirga and a jirga of one section of the Para Chamkannis have come into Parachinar to make overtures for settlement. The agitation, however, has spread to other tribes. On August 19, Ahmadzai Ghilzai collected a lashkar on Peiwar Kotal in the neighbourhood of Utsar and Bargawisar. Reconnaissance aeroplanes were heavily fired upon from these two points, and militia pickets in the upper Kurram were fired on from Utsar. Thanks to excellent defensive measures adopted by the Kurram militia and village levies, together with successful measures adopted by the local Afghan authorities to restrain the tribes on their side of the border, the hostile forces dispersed after a few days without further committing themselves. Improved Outlook in Provinces.

Provincial reports for the first fortnight of August continue to show a marked improvement in most provinces. In Madras the number of breaches of the law and consequent prosecutions continue to fall. In Bengal the improvement has been so marked that it is possible to discern a tendency to return to normal conditions. There has been less picketing, particularly in Calcutta, and the movement generally has much weakened. A good sign in several districts is the increased attend ance 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 institutions, from which the Mohammedans, however, kept aloof. There has been a very serious interference with studies at all the Allahabad, Benares, and Lucknow Universities but a recen* report in the Press states that students have revolted in the first-mentioned university against this interference with their future careers.

Punjab records a definite and practically universal decline in Congress activities. and the movement is moribund. The situation in Bombay City is more stable so far as law and order are concerned, but economic conditions tend to deteriorate and more mills have been closed down. The above record of improvement must be qualified in certain respects The boycott of foreign goods is still, effective in many towns, and picketing, although on the decline, is still practised to a considerable extent. Although therefore, the situation .in most provinces is distinctly easier, there is no province in which conditions are normal or in which it can be safely said that some activities of the civil disobedience movement may not assume fresh vigour There has fortunately been a marked improvement in Sind, where the com munal situation was reported last week to be serious. The position is now under control.

SERIOUS FRONTIER CLASH Tribesmen and Mixed Force (Hee. August 26, 9.20 p.m.). Delhi, August 26. The situation on the North-West frontier, which appeared to be improving, has become worse during the week-end. There was a serious clash yesterday near Domei, in the Bannu district, between Government forces and a large armed force of Ilathikhel Watiirs. A mixed force of regular infantry, fron tier constabulary and police left Bannu early in the morning to prevent the meeting of hostile tribesmen. Captain F. Ashcroft, of the Frontier Force Rifles, was shot dead from behind and tierce hand-to-hand fighting re suited. Nine Indian soldiers were killed and ten wounded, while twenty-six tribesmen were killed and five wounded. Seventy were taken prisoner,