National

Calendar 2002

Events of the year -- cataclysms that vent their fury on a weary people and the vox populi expressed through trials, triumphs.

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Calendar 2002
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Calendar 2002
Outlook wishes its readers a Happy New Year. We hope to bring you better news when we return from a week'sbreak in January 2003.

JANUARY

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January 12:  TheMusharraf regime orders the arrest of Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Saeed and the Jaish-e-Mohammad’sMasood Azhar in the aftermath of the December 13 attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi

January 22: Attackon Calcutta's USIS kills four securitymen and injures 17 others.

January 24: Insat 3C launched

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January/February: A military build-up begins on the India-Pakistan border, prompted by theParliament attack

FEBRUARY

February 17: The biggest offensive by Nepal's guerillas since the state of emergency was declared inNepal last November leaves 120 police and army personnel dead

February 22: A truce pact signed between the LTTEand the Sri Lanka government. Later, talks in Thailand between the two, sponsored by Norway, make moreheadway. This is preceded by the reclusive LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran’s ‘coming out’ at a press meet.

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February 22: DanielPearl, The Wall Street Journal reporter, kidnapped on January 13, is brutally beheaded by Islamic terrorists in Pakistan.

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FEBRUARY 27: Coaches S5 and S6 of Sabarmati Express set on fire at Godhrakilling 57 ram-sevaks, including many women and children

February 28 onwards: The cycleof violence started by Godhra unleashed on the hapless Muslims in Gujarat.

MARCH
Israel pounds Palestine Authority leader YasserArafat’s compound at Ramallah in a bid to expel him

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March 6: Writer-activist ArundhatiRoy spends a day in prison for contempt of court

March 16: The death of celebrity NatashaSingh, Congress leader Natwar Singh's daughter, is shrouded in mystery as the suicide theory getsquestioned.

March 17: First of the attacks on Churches in Islamabad,which led to the deaths of five Christians, two of them the wife and daughter of a member of the staff of theUS Embassy in Islamabad

March 30: The first attack on Ragunath temple

APRIL

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April 12: Venezuela’s HugoChavez is ejected in a coup but is brought back after public demonstrations in his favour

April 15: An Air China flight from Beijing to Busan in South Korea crashes, killing 127 people. This is the airline’sfirst ever crash.

April 21: SachinTendulkar scores his 29th Test ton, putting him on par with the Don

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MAY

May 2: Pakistan's referendum to elect Musharraf

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May 3: BSP chief Mayawatisworn in UP CM

May 5: Myanmar’s junta frees AungSan Suu Kyi after years of house arrest

May 5: JacquesChirac wins in a landslide, pushing the challenger, right-winger Jean Marie Le Pen, to the fringe

May 8: Shiv Sena leader ManoharJoshi becomes Speaker of the Lok Sabha

May 8: Attacks in Karachi,Pakistan on the Shraton Hotel killed 11 French nationals.

May 14: A fidayeen attack on a bus and army cantonment at Kaluchak,Jammu. Twenty-two women, children die. India on the brinkof war with Pakistan.

May 19: EastTimor becomes independent : A new nation is born, the millennium’s first and the world’s 190th

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May 21: Abdul Ghani Lone gunned down

May 23: ‘Devdas’is screened at Cannes and becomes the talk of the town

JUNE

India gets its first all-girl band, Viva.

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June 9: SyedAli Shah Geelani and his sons-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah and Iftikar Geelani arrested under POTA

June 13: HamidKarzai gets the top job at Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga

June 23: There was good news at last: KapilDev was named Indian Cricketer of The Century;

June 24: Former Bajrang Dal stormtrooper VinayKatiyar becomes UP BJP chief

June 30: Football’s SambaBoys Brazil win the World Cup, beating Germany 2-0

JULY
Nitish Kumar’s proposal to bifurcateEastern Railways with a new HQ at Hajipur, Bihar, rakes up a storm

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July 7: The man who introduced the equity cult to the Indian masses, Reliance founder DhirubhaiAmbani, passes away. The new generation, sons Mukesh and Anil, take charge of the textiles-to-petrochem-to-telecomconglomerate.

July 13: Militants gundown 28 slumdwellers in RajeevNagar, Jammu.

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July 25: A.P.J.Abdul Kalam becomes the twelfth President of India, beating out Captain Lakshmi Sehgal of the INA, who hadbeen fielded by the Left

July 29: Home ministerL.K. Advani takes on dual responsibility as deputy PM

July 30: Mumbai police release two-year-old tapedphone conversations, allegedly between Sanjay Dutt and underworld don Chhota Shakeel. The Bollywood bad boy’s father SunilDutt was then heading a peace mission in Gujarat.

AUGUST

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Delayed monsoon brings the worstdrought in 11 years. The worst hit are UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Karnataka.

ShivaniBhatnagar case was once again in limelight after prime suspect Ravi Kant Sharma's hysterical wife MadhuSharma, named Pramod Mahajan as involved.

Tamil Nadu witnesses a manic frenzy over Rajnikant’s film ‘Baba’, through which he was supposed to have subliminally announced his entry into politics. The film bombs.

August 6: Three LeT terrorists attack an Amarnath yatra base camp near Pahalgam and kill 9, including pilgrims

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August 12: The BJP’s BhaironSingh Shekhawat beats Congress’ Sushilkumar Shinde to take the Vice-President’s office

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August 25: H. Nagappa kidnapped by Veerappan

SEPTEMBER
The Cauverywater sharing dispute erupts again. Karnataka witnesses riots, which would later force chief minister S.M.Krishna to take to the roads, disobey the Supreme Court’s order on releasing water to Tamil Nadu and riskcontempt charges.

September 9: The Calcutta Rajdhani Express becomes a political football soon after it took 93 lives at Rafiganj Bihar. Wasit negligence or sabotage?

September 11: AbuSalem arrested in Portugal with starlet Monica Bedi. India pursues his extradition without success.

September 16: Elections in J&K commence in four phases, with the others on Sept 24, October 1 and October 8

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September 24: Akshardham:Terrorists kill 44 and injure over 70 in the heinous attack inside a Swaminarayan sect temple in Gandhinagar

September 28: SalmanKhan drives over five pavement dwellers in Mumbai. One dies.

September 29: Police kill 5 terrorists who had planned to assassinate Deputy PM L.K. Advani in Bangalore.

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OCTOBER
The Indian armybegins pulling back from the forward positions it had assumed in January. Pakistan reciprocates with demobilisation.

Starvation deaths reported among the Sahariya tribals of Rajasthan

October 1: Navy planes collide in mid-air at a flypast in Goa, 15 die

October 10: J&KResults are announced, National Conference is the largest party but the winners are clearly Congress andPDP with a wipe-out for BJP

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October 10: Pakistan's much-flawed 'elections'held.

October 13: Al Qaida claimed responsibility for the blasts in Bali which killed 183 and revealedAustralia's Big Brother persona and consequent vulnerability

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October 16: Five Dalits are lynchedby a mob in Jhajjar, Haryana, suspecting them of killing a cow. This triggers a spate of conversions to Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. Dalit leader Udit Raj is the master of ceremonies.

October 23: 50 Chechan rebels stormed a Moscow theatre and held hundreds hostage. A 5 a.m. raid onOctober 27, preceded by sedative gas, rescued 750 hostages but left 90 others and the hostage-takers dead. 

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October 28: Australian cricketer, twin of captain Steve, Mark Waugh retires

NOVEMBER

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November 2: MuftiMohammed Sayeed sworn in as Chief Minister of J&K as the PDP-Congress firm-up a CMP and alliance withthe help of supporters.

November 3: Delhi police kill two alleged Lashkar militants at Delhi’s AnsalPlaza mall. A debate rages after some describe it as a faked encounter.

November 11: JKLF leader YasinMalik, held under POTA, released

November 11: BillGates visits India and announces a $100-million grant to battle AIDS

November 15: The Chinese Communist Party gets a new secretary-general, HuJintao. It also opens party membership to businessmen and entrepreneurs.

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November 22: Muslimsin Nigeria go on a rampage against Christians over the holding of the Miss World contest and a local trainee journalistpens a pro-pageant article that vilifies the Prophet in an English daily. Event moves to the UK.

November 23: Mir ZafarullahJamali sworn in PM of Pakistan (Jamali Kamali Dec 2)

November 25: The second attack on Raghunath temple

November 27: The US and the UK come close to declaring war again on the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq

DECEMBER
AneesIbrahim, Dawood’s brother and wanted in India for the serial bomb blasts in Bombay and other crimes,is deported to Pakistan by UAE. This prompts India to set up a special cell to handle extradition cases.-

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December 8: Kidnapped on August 25 by Veerappan, the body of JD(U)'s H. Nagappa was found 106 days later.

December 14: Pakistan releases the JeM supremo, Maulana Masood Azhar

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December 15: BJP and Narendra Modi win a landslide, and a landmark, 2/3rd.majority in Gujarat Assembly Elections.

December 18: Death sentence for the Parliament accused Mohd Afzal and others.

December 19: Hollywood actor RichardGere is in India to lend his name and money to the Naz Foundation, which runs a homefor AIDS-infected children

December 23: Sajjan Kumar acquitted inAnti-Sikh Delhi Riots Case

December 24: Indonesian authorities return the passports of software firm Polaris’ CEO Arun Jain and colleague RajivMalhotra. They had been arrested when they went to Jakarta to meet client Bank Artha Graha to settle somecontractual issues, triggering off a diplomatic offensive by India.

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December 27: 46 people killed and over 76 injured as two vehicles laden with one ton of dynamite rammed into the high-security government headqurters in Chechen capital Grozny.

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