2 min readJul 22, 2026 06:30 AM IST First published on: Jul 22, 2026 at 06:30 AM ISTThe agitation over the language issue in Cachar grew worse as six persons including three constables were killed and over 35 hurt in police firing in Karimganj. The mob indulged in arson and fire-stones at the district headquarters. An indefinite curfew has been clamped on the town and troops have been alerted for any emergency. The trouble spread to Silchar also. The violence marked the first visit by the Chief Minister, Prafulla Mahanta, to the Cachar division since he assumed office in December.Nine dead in Bihar train mishapNine persons were killed and 53 others injured, 19 seriously, when a goods train rammed into the 28-Up Maurya Express, about to leave the Gomoh station, according to the divisional railway manager, D K Mathur. The killed included the wife, two children and brother of the Janata Party MP from Chapra, Ram Bahadur Singh.AdvertisementPolice lapses caused massacreThe Chief Minister, Vir Bahadur Singh, admitting lapses on the part of the police resulting in the massacre of nine persons in a village in Banda, said that the police superintendent, circle officer and station house officer of May had been transferred. Singh, on his return from the scene of the crime in Ramu-Ka Purwa hamlet, said he had ordered payment of Rs 20,000 to the next of kin of all the nine persons murdered by the dacoits and Rs 2,000 to each of the six injured. The Chief Minister said the villagers had alleged they had to pay the price for having helped the police in getting two dacoits arrested and regretted that no arrangement was made by the police for their protection.Furore over PM’s remarkPrime MINISTER Rajiv Gandhi’s assertion in the Lok Sabha that the Government would not allow the “personal interests of individual trade union leaders to hold the country to ransom” sparked off a noisy protest from the opposition. The protest culminated in the chair directing the Bombay labour leader Datta Samant to withdraw from the House.