Agartala, Nov 15: A group threw stones at the vehicle of a CPI-M leader and the Zilla Parishad chief of South Tripura district on Thursday at Belonia town in the state and 17 people, including 10 police personnel were injured when the force intervened to stop them, police said.

South Tripura superintendent of police J S Meena said he is not aware whether the attackers belonged to any political party and the South Tripura zilla sabhadhipati Himanshu Roy escaped unhurt.

A group of about 100 miscreants pelted stones at the vehicle of the zilla sabhadhipati (parishad chief) at Belonia, about 110 km from here and police had to resort to lathi charge in which seven attackers were injured, he said.

Ten force personnel were injured in the stone pelting, he said.

The CPI-M has alleged that the attackers were ruling BJP activists and they attacked Roy with a political motive.

"BJP-backed miscreants were behind the attack. The BJP is aiming to grab the South Tripura zilla parishad which is controlled by CPI-M and with this motive they are trying to created a fear psychosis", party secretary for Belonia sub-division Tapas Dutta said.

BJP spokesman Ashok Sinha said, We are yet to confirm what had happened.

The SP said most of the injured were released from hospital after first aid and a few are still undergoing treatment at the hospital.

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Mumbai (PTI): The rupee plunged 9 paise to a record low of 90.87 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday, weighed down by sustained FII outflows and no breakthrough in the India-US trade deal.

However, a weaker greenback and a decline in global crude oil prices capped further losses in the domestic unit, according to forex traders.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at its all-time low of 90.87 against the US dollar, down 9 paise from its previous close, and traded in a narrow range of 90.77- 90.87 in early trade.

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The rupee on Monday settled at a new all-time low of 90.78 against the US dollar, registering a loss of 29 paise over its previous close, weighed down by uncertainty over an India-US trade deal and persistent foreign fund outflows.

"The US-India trade deal still seems to be off by a distance with the Commerce Secretary saying the first phase will be signed before the end of the year and news that we are closest to the deal being signed. The uncertainty has clouded the recovery on the USD/INR pair as the rupee opened lower with dollar buying happening every day," Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.

Even a reduction in trade deficit on Monday could not bring about a recovery in the rupee with Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) outflows continuing, he added

According to the latest government data released on Monday, India's trade deficit narrowed to a five-month low of USD 24.53 billion in November, as exports rebounded by 19.37 per cent to a six-month high of USD 38.13 billion after contracting in October, driven by higher shipments of engineering and electronics goods.

At the same time, the country's imports dipped by 1.88 per cent to USD 62.66 billion due to a fall in the inbound shipments of gold, crude oil, coal, and coke.

FIIs sold equities worth Rs 1,468.32 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

Also, wholesale price inflation stayed in the negative for the second consecutive month in November at (-) 0.32 per cent, even though there was an uptick in prices of food articles like pulses and vegetables on a month-on-month basis, government data showed on Monday.

Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation was at (-) 1.21 per cent in October and 2.16 per cent in November last year.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.03 per cent lower at 98.27.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.61 per cent lower at USD 60.19 per barrel in futures trade.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index, Sensex, declined 363.92 points to 84,849.44 in early trade while the Nifty was down 106.65 points to 25,920.65.