The Bengali-speaking indigenous Muslims in the district have traditionally and historically been a tool for “consolidation of block votes” not only for Mamata Banerjee, but for Congress and the CPM.

The weather office has predicted thunderstorm, lightning and gusty winds (speed 40-50 kmph) with isolated hailstorms likely over Jammu- Kashmir-Ladakh-Gilgit-Baltistan-Muzaffarabad, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during Friday and Saturday.

An Israeli Air Force fighter jet dropped a bomb near an Israeli community on the Gaza border owing to a “technical malfunction”.