July 11, 1979, Forty years ago: Lok Sabha members resign

Laldenga Raids

An undisclosed amount of money, including 2,800 US dollars in bills of various denominations, was seized from the Gulmohar Park house where Laldenga, president of the banned Mizo National Front (MNF), was arrested on July 8 morning. Sources in the Central Intelligence Bureau said that three more houses, including one in Sarojini Nagar, a government employees’ colony, were raided in the pre-dawn Sunday swoop. Among the documents seized in the raids, it is said, were letters from some foreign sources received by Laldenga at various addresses in Delhi and other places. Sources said that a number of places were being kept under surveillance following reports that of late some youths from Mizoram had been visiting Laldenga’s “friends and relatives”.

General’s return

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini has ordered the reinstatement of the commander of the country’s military police, Brig. Gen. Amir Rahimi. BBC’s Teheran correspondent describes the move as a humiliating reversal for the government of Premier Mehdi Bazargan, which had ordered the general’s dismissal. An aide to the Ayatollah in Qom told the correspondent that “When Ayatollah Khomeini orders. no one has the right to refuse.”