Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during his visit to the Lahaul and Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh on Saturday. — PTI photo

3 hurt in Shia protests
2 Army men die in Pak shelling
SRINAGAR, June 3 — Barring sporadic demonstrations and some stone throwing incidents in Shia-dominated areas the valley remained peaceful today despite yesterday’s explosion at Pattan which killed 12 persons and injured several others.

Speight demands aide as President
SUVA, June 3 — Fiji rebel leader George Speight today demanded that the military government appoint one of his close aides as President as part of a deal to release 31 political hostages Speight has held since May 19.

Youth beaten up, stripped
JALANDHAR, June 3 — In a heinous act, a youth who had allegedly wrongly parked his tractor-trolley, was brutally beaten up, stripped naked and illegally detained for one-and-a-half hours by a local trader and his henchmen yards away from a police station even as scores of people watched the young man being humiliated.

Storm causes breaches in canal
TEONA (Bathinda), June 3 — Freshly transplanted paddy and cotton crop in more than 2000 acres of land was destroyed when water flooded the fields following breaches in nine places in various distributaries and the Bathinda branch of the Sirhind canal passing through this district late last night.

 

Swindler on the prowl on Shatabdi CHANDIGARH, June 3 — Little did Mrs Reshmi Singh, Honorary Secretary, National Federation of Teachers, realise that the woman who was occupying her seat as she was adjusting her luggage was the most notorious swindler who has been successfully operating on prestigious Shatabdi trains.