Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday filed her nomination papers for the September 30 Bhabanipur assembly by-poll.

The TMC supremo will be pitted against BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal and Left Front's Srijib Biswas.

The result will be declared on October 3. Banerjee, who lost the election in Nandigram, has to win this by-poll to retain the chief minister's post.

Banerjee is a resident of Bhabanipur and had won the seat twice in 2011 and 2016.

She had contested from Nandigram in the April-May assembly poll this year against BJP leader and her former protege Suvendu Adhikari and lost.

After her defeat in Nandigram, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, state cabinet minister and TMC MLA from Bhabanipur, vacated the seat to facilitate her return to the assembly from there.

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Beijing (PTI): China, for the first time, has confirmed that it provided on-site technical support to Pakistan during the four-day conflict with India last year, official media reports here said.

China's state broadcaster CCTV on Thursday aired an interview with Zhang Heng, an engineer from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China's (AVIC) Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, a key developer of China’s advanced fighter aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicle design.

Zhang had provided technical support to Pakistan during the four-day war last May, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported, quoting CCTV.

Pakistan's air force operates a fleet of Chinese-made J-10CE jets, produced by an AVIC subsidiary.

"At the support base, we frequently heard the roar of fighter jets taking off and the constant wail of air-raid sirens. By late morning, in May, the temperature was already approaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). It was a real ordeal for us, both mentally and physically,” Zhang said.

What drove his team was the "desire to do an even better job with on site support” and to ensure their equipment could “truly perform at its full combat potential”, Zhang told CCTV.

“That wasn’t just a recognition of the J10CE; it was also a testament to the deep bond we formed through working side by side, day in and day out,” he said.