Terrorist link in Punjab jailbreak

Chandigarh: Narain Singh Chaura, arrested from Mohali on Friday for the Burail jailbreak, has revealed to the police that he was trained in guerrilla warfare in Pakistan.

Chaura, the president of the Akal Federation, a pro-Khalistan militant outfit, confessed on Saturday that had undergone training twice in Pakistan. He was produced in court and remanded in police custody till February 9.

Chaura had engineered a power failure in the jail on January 21 by throwing a heavy chain on the feeder lines. That night, three assassins of chief minister Beant Singh — Jagtar Singh Hawara, Jagtar Singh Tara, Paramjit Singh — and another inmate escaped through a tunnel they had allegedly burrowed from their barracks.

Chaura, a regular visitor to the jail for the last 18 months, had supplied digging materials and new turbans to them and had also arranged for a vehicle. Hawara, Tara and Paramjit were among the 12 facing trial for the murder of Beant Singh, who was assassinated on August 31, 1995 while stepping into his car outside the secretariat.

Family faces fine for flag in yard

New York (PTI): A Hindu family in Florida has been asked by residents to remove a religious flag from their frontyard or face a fine of up to $100 a day, triggering allegations of discriminatory practises.

The Indo-Guyanese couple, Chola and Leila Persuad, was asked by the board of the Rivermill Homeowners Association in Lake Worth, Florida, to remove the jhandi (flag), which they had put up following a prayer session to protect the family.

The board had voted last year to ban religious symbols from all the 377 of the community’s frontyards, except for the few weeks around official holidays such as Christmas.

The president of the board, Mike Magnanti, was quoted by the Florida Sun-Sentinel as saying that the rule was an attempt to address complaints lodged by residents that the Persuads’ flag looks like “a torn, tattered towel on a tree”.

The family can put it in front during the holiday period, but at other times it should be in their backyard, he said.

25-year term for militant

Jammu (PTI): In the first-ever judgment on an arrested militant in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistani national and Lashkar-e-Toiba militant Mohammad Qasim alias Abu Bakar was handed 25 years’ rigorous imprisonment and a Rs 20,000 fine on Saturday.

Subhash Chander Gupta, principal sessions judge, district and session court in Jammu, awarded the sentence to Qasim, who was arrested by the army in December 1995. He was caught while crossing into Indian territory at Dharati village in Poonch after being injured in an encounter.

Student protest

Pratapgarh (PTI): A group of students on Saturday defied prohibitory orders clamped after Friday’s clashes and went on rampage here to press for the arrest of a sub-inspector who had allegedly raped a college student. Police had to lathi-charge to disperse the mob when they tried to set on fire a police outpost and a hotel.

BSNL duped

Jaipur (PTI): The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has filed a complaint against nine mobile customers who got connections on forged identification documents and duped it of more than Rs 67 lakh. Police said the complaint was filed on Friday.

Sati acquittal

Jaipur (PTI): Sixteen years after Roop Kanwar allegedly immolated herself on the pyre of her husband in Rajasthan’s Deorala village, a special court on Saturday acquitted all the 11 accused, including state BJP vice-president Rajendra Rathore. The court said the prosecution had failed to prove charges that they glorified Sati.

Body in hotel room

Birbhum: The police have found the body of a 22-year-old woman from a hotel in Tarapith on Saturday night. The woman, identified as Sunita Sharma, had gone there with her husband Rajiv on Friday afternoon. The police broke open the door of their room to find Sunita lying on the floor.

Porter killed

Patna: One porter was killed and three injured in a frantic dash to unload goods from a train at the Danapur railway station on Saturday.

The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board has decided to set up a centre for Vedic studies — Shri Vidya Sanskrit Gurukul Shiksha Kendra — at Charan Paduka, en route to the cave shrine of Vaishno Devi in Trikuta hills of Jammu and Kashmir.