N-capable Agni II missile test-fired successfully

India on Sunday successfully test fired the nuclear capable Agni II missile from a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) facility located in the Wheelers Island off the coast of Odisha’s Bhadrak district.

The sources in the Bhadrak district administration said, the 20-meter long indigenously developed Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile was test launched from a mobile launcher parked in launch pad number four of the Interim Test Range at around 10.15 am.

 The test launch was carried out by the Strategic Force Command of the Indian army with technical support and assistance of DRDO scientists.

Describing the test launch as a success, the sources at DRDO said, the sleek missile carrying a dummy warhead traveled the entire pre-determined path in about nine minutes before diving into the sea in the Bay of Bengal at a pre-fixed location.

“The entire journey of the missile which was equipped with an advance high accuracy navigation system was monitored by sophisticated radars, electro-optic instruments and telemetry observation centres located at more than one place on the Odisha coastline. Besides, the Indian navy ships stationed at the impact point inside the sea also­ witnessed the final event,” sources said.

The Agni II missile which has the capability to destroy a target at a distance of 2000 to 3000 kms carrying both conventional as well as nuclear warheads up to 1000 kg, however, had already been successfully test fired several times in the past. The missile, in fact, has already been inducted into the Indian armed forces.

As precautionary measures, the fishing trawlers and other vessels had been advised not to venture into the sea near the coast of Bhadrak and neighbouring Balasore districts during the Sunday’s missile test. Similarly, the civil aviation ministry had also been advised not to allow flights to fly above the Bhadrak-Balasore coast during the missile test.

Agni II had its maiden successful flight way back in April 1991. It had its last successful test launch in August 2012.

DH News ServiceCHENNAI, DHNS: In a prize catch, a most-wanted Maoist of West Bengal, 28-year-old Syam Saran Tudu, was arrested on Saturday night in Tamil Nadu’s textile city of Coimbatore.

Wanted in a number of daring extremist cases for over two years now, the February 2010 ‘Sealdah police camp attack’ in West Midnapore District of West Bengal in which 24 policemen were killed, Tudu was picked up in a late night operation, top police sources in Coimbatore told Deccan Herald over the phone on Sunday.

On an intelligence tip-off, a five-member West Bengal police team led by a DSP arrived in Coimbatore with an arrest warrant to pick up Tudu, with the help of a crack team of the Tamil Nadu Police, sources said. Tudu tried to escape but “thanks to the brave efforts of the Tamil Nadu police, they encircled the small tenement Tudu had been living with 19 others in Coimbatore and nabbed him,” the sources said.

Tudu had managed to sneak into Coimbatore sometime in 2012, from where he used to visit Bengal now and then, sources said. The Moaist-accused had found a daily wage job in a private factory in Coimbatore for the past six months.

A labourer had apparently alerted the police some time back, after which they were tracking the cell-phone calls of the accused including those to his relatives and friends, sources said. The Bengal police would take Tudu to Kolkata, said Coimbatore Police Commissioner A K Viswanathan.