R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

HARYANA

Smuggler arrested: An inter-state smuggler, Tej Pratap Singh, alias Tabboo, a resident of Salpaani Kalan village here, was arrested under the NDPS Act for allegedly smuggling 460 gm of smack worth Rs 2 lakh from near Jhinwarheri village on the Indri-Kurukshetra road on Tuesday. District police chief Amitabh Dhillon said Tabboo told the police that he had been smuggling smack from Rajasthan and used to supply it in the areas of Punjab and Haryana. He was produced in a local court, which sent him to police custody for three days.

Rewari
Storm hits life: A storm of fierce intensity lashed Rewari and the surrounding areas on Wednesday. While scores of trees were uprooted causing disruption of vehicular traffic at several places, numerous electric poles were also damaged which threw the power supply system in total disarray in many areas of the town causing inconvenience to people. Water supply, too, was adversely affected at various places.

Student electrocuted: Deepak, a student of BEd in a college of education here, was reportedly electrocuted when he accidentally touched a live wire while repairing the electric motor of a tubewell in Berwal village on Tuesday. It has been treated as a case of accidental death by the Rampura police. 

SIRSA
Paper mill catches fire: R.S. Paper Board Mill at Ellenabad again caught fire on Wednesday. Earlier, it had caught fire and its owner had claimed of incurring losses to the tune of lakhs of rupees. Though cause behind the fire was not confirmed yet, sources said it might have been caused due to strong winds. They said it took nearly 10 hours for four fire tenders to douse the fire.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

JAMMU
Amarnath yatra: With just over a month left for the Amarnath yatra, 2,603 pilgrims across the country have registered for the pilgrimage. The registration is on at 80 different branches of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank across the country. The Amarnath Shrine Board has decided to start the yatra from June 18. A total of 28,6680 pilgrims would be registered for the yatra, officials said, adding the registration would end  on July 13.

Srinagar
Kidnapped CRPF constables killed : Two abducted Central Reserve Police Force constables were killed today in Shopian district in Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said. Three constables of CRPF, who were on intelligence gathering mission, were abducted by the militants in Shopian District on Tuesday. While one of the constables managed to escape from the clutches of the kidnappers, the other two — Mohammad Rafique and Asif Ali — were killed by their captors, the sources said. All the three constables were Kashmiris and had been assigned the task of intelligence gathering in the forests of Shopian, which is believed to be infested with militants, sources said.

Cops awarded: DGP Kuldeep Khoda on Wednesday announced Parakram Padak award for two police officials, SP Mubassir Latifi and constable Mangal Singh, who were wounded in the Samba encounter on May 11. A photojournalist of Daily Excelsior, Ashok Sodhi, two militants and a couple were among six persons killed in the encounter.

3 killed in mishaps: Altaf Ahmad Badi (4) was drowned in the Lidder river in Pahalgam on Wednesday. His body was later fished out at Yaner. In another incident, one Mohammad Amin was electrocuted at Sonawar. Meanwhile, a vehicle hit and critically injured one Ghulam Ahmad Bhat at the bus stand, Budgam. He was admitted to hospital where he later died. In yet another incident, four shops were gutted in a devastating fire at Langate Bazar in the Kashmir valley. The cause of the fire is yet to be known, sources said.

Khatamband craft: To give a major boost to centuries-old wood-based Khatamband craft, the state forest corporation has decided to create a new material bank for artisans. An official spokesman said it had been decided to create a raw material bank and ensure supply of quality graded and certified Fir-Timber to Khatamband artisans in the valley. It has been decided that state forest corporation would supply 25,000 cubic feet of Fir-Timber annually to the registered artisans at the rate of 100 cubic feet per artisans.

Cataract surgeries: The health department had performed 12,706 cataract surgeries in various health institutes in Kashmir in 2007, an official spokesman said on Wednesday. He said during 2006-2007, 12,257 cases and during 2007-2008, 12,706 cataract surgeries had been performed in various health institutions in Kashmir. Besides, 55,048 schoolchildren had been screened for refractive error and 7,144 of them were advised glasses.