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A Village Burnt Overnight: Tears, Loss and Survival in Dhamangaon Blaze

  Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...

NSG holds mock drill at VNIT


  • Similar exercise was held on Monday at a mall

By Dheeraj Fartode
National Security Guard (NSG) commandos have undertaken a series of mock drill in city. On Tuesday the NSG team along with local police moved into Visvewaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) and held the drill. Senior police official said it is a regular exercise done to keep force into high action mode. Such drills also help in fine tuning anti-terrorist strategies. The prevailing inputs with intelligence agencies point out to susceptibility of urban areas in country. Hence NSG has got into high action mode.
The reports with local top police officers are that NSG has previously conducted such mock drills at Hyderabad and Kolkata before coming to city. On Monday, NSG team with local police had held similar exercise at a reputed mall located in a multi storeyed building of city. The building was selected in view of its location in sensitive part of city and also from logistic point of view, the high rise so as to test response of NSG commandos.
Jt. Commissioner of Police (Jt. CP) Anup Kumar Singh when contacted by The Hitavada confirmed that NSG team had held mock drills in city since yesterday. The Quick Response Teams (QRTs) of city police too are assisting NSG during the drill as per instructions, he further revealed.
The special drill by the team from Mumbai will help in better understanding of the area of operations and the situation on ground, said a local police officer. The joint drill of National Security Guard and local police, attracted thousands of citizens and special arrangements of security were made near VNIT. 
According to a senior police officer, NSG team of 150 members arrived in city by Super Hercules, the special aircraft that flies them. A team of Quick Response Team (QRT) from respective zones was roped in to aid NSG.

File Picture of NSG Commandos

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