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Security forces today entered Lalgarh to reclaim it from Maoist-backed tribals and were closing in on the police station there. The personnel of paramilitary forces and the state police were just two km away from the Lalgarh police station, which is under Maoist control, a senior police officer said.

The securitymen from CRPF, BSF, State Armed Police, Eastern Frontier Rifles and the Kolkata Police entered the besieged area after crossing a five-km stretch of the Jhitka forest, a Maoist stronghold, he said. They were moving in armoured vehicles fitted with anti-landmine devices and mortars and were carrying mine-detecting units.

Noting that India was "deeply anguished" over continuing attacks on its students in Australia, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor today said New Delhi expects "better measures" from that Government. "We are deeply anguished over the attacks.

India wants to see better measures taken by the Australian government," the Minister of state for External Affairs said. "We have conveyed our concerns at the highest possible level.

Our Prime Minister has spoken about it to his Australian counterpart," he said at a meet-the-press programme here organised by the Ernakulam Press Club. However, Tharoor said the Australian government has reciprocated with certain measures.

Referring to the controversy over his earlier comments that it was a domestic issue, he said certain remarks of his were taken out of context and "misinterpreted" by some people. "This is a domestic issue and it is not equivalent to the South African apartheid where we were opposing the measures taken by the government and in Australia we are working on the same side of the government," the minister said.

Indian government cannot protect their students in Australia as it is a sovereign country. In the same way, India will not allow foreign countries to protect their citizens in India.

Some of the attacks have racial connotations, he said.

West Bengal's principal opposition party Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Saturday said Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee 'is a bigger Maoist' and threatened a stir if allegations that her party had links with leftwing rebels were not withdrawn.

'We will wait for 48 hours. If nothing happens within that time, then we will hit the streets,' Banerjee told mediapersons at her Kalighat residence.

'We don't support Maoists. If you search the chief minister's house, you will get Maoist literature. He is a bigger Maoist,' the Trinamool chief said.

Banerjee also demanded Bhattacharjee's resignation for the atrocities committed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) cadres in various parts of the state.

'This chief minister should be sacked. He is wholly responsible for all the atrocities. He is the lead actor of all the atrocities across Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh, Mangalkot and Keshpur,' Banerjee said.

The railway minister also questioned why the state government took so much time to crack down on the Maoists.

'Why didn't you ban the Maoists in the state, when it is banned in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh?' she asked pointedly.

'I am condemning the atrocities, whoever is doing this. But who created the Maoists? Who has carried out atrocities against common people in the name of Maoists? The people who are arrested in Lalgarh are not Maoists,' she thundered, denying her party's links with the rebels.

She alleged the CPI-M was trying to establish its sway in Lalgarh in the name of the operation. Neither the central nor the state government had apprised her party about the ongoing operation beforehand, she added.

'They didn't tell us anything about the operation that is going on for three days. We have not been informed by the state or the central government. Law and order is a state subject. It is their joint operation. I don't want to talk on this.'

Asked about the Maoist leader Kishanji's comment that they participated in the Singur and Nandigram along with Trinamool, Banerjee said: 'There were no Maoists during the Singur and Nandigram fights. I don't know any Kishanji. It is a drama created by the CPI-M. They are very good at creating new drama.'

LTTE chief Prabhakaran, the man who led the battle for a separate Tamil state for over three decades, has been reportedly shot by the Lankan army as he tried to flee. This news comes just hours after the Lankan government said they had found the body of LTTE supremo's 24-year-old son Charles Anthony.

Gulf Arab countries should help Pakistan and Yemen bolster security in the face of rising militant violence that could spread their way, the European Union's anti-terrorism chief said on Monday.

Gulf authorities should also tighten controls on possible transfers of funds to militant groups through Pakistani and Yemeni expatriates living in the oil-exporting region, Gilles de Kerchove told Reuters.

"It's a question of knowing if we can together work with Gulf countries to try and avoiding Pakistan and Yemen becoming what we commonly call 'failed states' and gradually safe havens for al Qaeda organisations," he said on the sidelines of a conference on terror financing.

"We are witnessing a regionalisation of al Qaeda, in North Africa, Iraq and the Arabian peninsula," he said, referring to various groups using al Qaeda's name. "It's urgent that we help Pakistan and Yemen strengthen their anti-terrorism apparatus."

Al Qaeda's Taliban allies have used their base in ethnic Pashtun tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border to take more territory inside Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state which Western powers and their regional allies fear is collapsing.

Yemen is battling a new wave of al Qaeda attacks over the past year as well as secessionist sentiment in the south which led to clashes this week that provoked a rare call by the United States for the parties to act to keep Yemen united.

Sanaa also faces a Zaydi Shi'ite rebellion in the north and rebellious tribes who reject central authority, forming fertile ground for militant groups to operate.

Neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has said it fears instability in Yemen could allow it to become a launchpad for a revival of a 2003-2006 campaign by al Qaeda militants to topple the U.S.-allied ruling Al Saud family.

De Kerchove said Gulf countries needed to do more to combat money laundering that could benefit militants.

As of June 2007, travellers to and from Saudi Arabia are required to declare cash amounts, transferable monetary instruments or precious metals exceeding $16,000.

"There is a difference between fixing a threshold and checking that this system works," he said. "Is everyone who leaves Saudi Arabia checked? But it's good to have a law."

He said Saudi Arabia should tighten control along its long and porous border with Yemen, as well as offer Pakistan financial support to train its police force in counter-insurgency methods.

Western governments have praised Riyadh for its work in snuffing out the al Qaeda insurgency.

"Much of the anti-terrorism campaign has been led by the Pakistani army, an army that has not be adequately trained to deal with an insurgency," he said. "In Yemen, there is a huge amount of work to be done (and) a weakening state apparatus."

Even as New Delhi expressed concern over their well-being, Pakistani Sikhs have said that the majority Muslims are also a target of the Taliban, and the issue is a "national" problem rather than a "communal" one. This follows reports that that the Taliban were displacing Sikhs and levying special taxes (jaziya) on them in Pakistan's northwest region.

"Eh maslaa sirf Sikhaan da nahin ae. Suba sarhad tay FATA wich musalmaan, jo ki aksariyat wich nay, ohna naal wi Taliban tushaddat kar rahey ney. (This is not a Sikh issue. The majority Muslims living in NWFP and FATA are also being tortured by the Taliban)," said Bishen Singh, the president of the Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee.

Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone from Lahore, Singh added: "Please don't make it a political and international issue that only Sikhs are being targeted in Pakistan. That is completely untrue. The Muslims of the Taliban-infested areas are worse off than us and other minorities like the Hindus and Christians there. To tell the truth, we are safer than them because the Taliban know that our families have been living in the north for at least 300 years, so they are soft on us. They asked for the jaziya money and we paid them, whereas the Muslims are abducted and held to ransom. If the ransom is not paid, they are killed. Waheguru is kind that no Sikh was even touched while hundreds of Muslims have been killed."

Over 100 families are reported to have fled the region in the last fortnight. Pakistan's Evacuee Property Trust Board has launched relief operations, making living arrangements in prominent gurdwaras of the country.

Dhaka a list of suspected Indian terrorists believed to be hiding in Bangladesh, the Indian high commissioner here said.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Bangladeshi State Minister for Home Affairs Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj, India's Pinak Ranjan Chakravarti said: 'We have also requested the authorities to step up vigil over them especially during the ongoing polls yet to be completed in the eastern states of India.'

The envoy added that a number of issues, including extradition of prisoners, came up for discussion.

A secretary-level meeting between Bangladesh and India will take place to iron out ways of curbing regional terrorism once a new government assumes office in New Delhi, he added.

The Bangladeshi state minister said a number of suspected Bangladeshi terrorists were hiding in India.

The Mumbai terror attacks have put the spotlight on how India's outdated and overburdened law enforcement and legal systems are hampering the country's counterterrorism efforts, says a US State Department report.

'Although clearly committed to combating violent extremism, the Indian government's counterterrorism efforts remained hampered by its outdated and overburdened law enforcement and legal systems,' said the State Department's annual report on global terrorism released Thursday.

The Mumbai attackers appeared to have been well-trained and took advantage of technology, such as Global Positioning System trackers.

But 'local and state police proved to be poorly trained and equipped and lacked central control to coordinate an effective response', said the report, exposing the inadequacies in India's counter-terrorism apparatus.

The Mumbai 'attack was the most recent in a long list of lethal terrorist incidents' in India in 2008. But 'none of the perpetrators of these attacks has yet been prosecuted', the report noted.

However, in response to the Mumbai attacks, India's parliament has introduced legislation to restructure counterterrorism laws and proposed creating a National Investigative Agency to build a national-level ability to investigate and prosecute alleged terrorist activity, it noted.

Also in response to the Mumbai attacks, the Indian government amended some existing laws to strengthen the hands of security and law enforcement agencies in fighting terrorism.

Two themes have framed the public debate on the new legislation: states' rights vs. federal power, and civil liberties vs. stronger law enforcement powers, the report noted.