Arms haul sparks strike alert

Chandigarh: Gurdaspur police have arrested five persons and seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including an underwater mask, raising fears that rebels had worked out a different ploy to sneak into the country, reports our correspondent.

“Preliminary interrogation of the arrested, including two Pakistani nationals, has revealed an ISI-backed attempt to revive militancy in the state by way of initiating major terrorist action through bomb blasts and shootouts,” Gurdaspur’s senior superintendent of police, Narinder Bhargav, said over phone.

Two AK-56 rifles, magazines, 15 kg of RDX, hand grenades, sophisticated time devices, 13 pistols and nearly 500 rounds of ammunition were seized from various places in the sensitive border district of Punjab. But it is the seizure of the underwater mask that has sent shock waves through police circles here.

“No such mask had ever been recovered, not even when terrorism was at its peak. With the fence proving to be a big hurdle for both Khalistani and Kashmiri terrorists to infiltrate easily, the recovery of the mask points to a change in strategy. Infiltration could now be taking place through river routes,” a senior officer said.

The inspector-general of police (Jalandhar zone), S.K. Sharma, said among those arrested are Saroop Singh of the Khalistan Commando Force (Panjwar group), his brother Nirmal, and Rashpal Singh. The other two are Pakistanis who were living under the “assumed names” of Rattan Singh and Avtar Singh in Bajpur and Meerut, respectively, in Uttar Pradesh.

CBSE mulls grades extension

New Delhi (PTI): After introducing a grading system till Class V, the Central Board of Secondary Education is now contemplating extending the formula up to Class VIII.

“We have already sent circulars to all schools asking for their opinion on introduction of a seven-point grading system from Classes VI to VIII,” CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly said on Sunday.

There are no failure grades in the current CBSE grading system till Class V. G. Balasubramanium ,the board’s academic director, said it was considering whether to keep the grading system for Class VI to VIII free of failure criteria also.

5 farmers kill themselves

Karimnagar (PTI): Five more debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh, where drought this year has been severe, taking the total number of farmer suicides in the state close to 70, police said on Sunday.

Dontaraboina Venkatrajam of Potharam (S) village, Duddilla Chandramouli of Malhar mandal and Purushotham Mallaiah ended their lives by consuming pesticide on Saturday. They had incurred huge debts due to successive crop failures. On Friday, Vemula Kanakaiah and K. Vaikuntam in Karimnagar mandal committed suicide.

Dacoit caught

Bhopal (PTI): Kuber Singh, a dacoit carrying a reward of Rs 20,000 on his head, was arrested after an encounter in Panna, Madhya Pradesh, police said on Sunday. His accomplice Shakeel was also arrested. Singh is wanted in more than a dozen cases in this state and Uttar Pradesh.

Boys in rape net

Mumbai (PTI): Two 11-year-olds have been arrested on the charge of raping a nine-year- old in Mulund, police said. The girl was allegedly raped on September 1 when she had gone to the house of one of the accused where she worked as a maid, the police said. She was admitted to hospital here and is under treatment. The matter was reported to the police by hospital authorities on Saturday.

Train robbers

Kanpur (PTI): Police claim to have arrested five persons who were allegedly involved in drugging and robbing train passengers on the Kanpur-Delhi route. During the interrogation, the five confessed to be involved in around three dozen cases of robbing train passengers, GRP sources said.

Dismissed cop

Moga (PTI): Police on Sunday said they caught a dismissed police constable along with another man on the Moga-Amritsar road on Saturday for stealing a car. The police laid a trap and arrested the dismissed constable, Surjeet Singh, and Jaswant Singh who were coming to Moga from Amritsar with the stolen car, they said.

A 700-bed guesthouse has been set up in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir, for Vaishno Devi pilgrims who can avail of the accommodation for just Rs 50. It was set up at the cost of Rs 5.05 crore.