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

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  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,...
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City under hawk's eye of intelligence agencies

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By Dheeraj Fartode
Intelligence agencies are keeping a hawk's eye in sensitive points of city against backdrop of July 30 hanging of Bombay blasts accused Yakub Memon. Vigil is at all time high at few points as the D-day draws near when Yakub is going to be hanged to death at Nagpur's Central Prison.

Senior police officers are continuously monitoring the reports from ground and based on assessment and projections the bandobast is being adjusted in sensitive points in city, it is reliably learnt. Similarly all personnel have been told to remain on high alert and police officers are asked not to take any incident lying down. 
Yakub Memon

Meanwhile special task force has taken over external security at Central Prison as State police do not want to leave anything to chance. Personnel of State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) too have taken positions around entry points and porous campus of prison area. An officer of rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) is in-charge of outside security.

Inside the Central Prison, Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) Meera Borwanker is monitoring the ongoing arrangements for July 30 hanging of Yakub. The necessary personnel, including Doctors have been contacted and they are in touch with Central Prison authorities.

State Intelligence Department (SID) had already issued a circular on July 22 and asked police department to keep extra vigil in the state as anti-social elements may try to vitiate social atmosphere against backdrop of July 30 hanging. Already a leading minority body have called for protest at Mumbai on July 29, a day ahead of Yakub's hanging which has upped the ante in intelligence establishment. Also, city police have tightened security in and around Central Jail by deploying a quick response team (QRT). Central Prison is now off limits for strangers and a tight security is thrown around the entire campus.

Muslim organisations will hold a dharna on July 29 at Azad Maidan, Mumbai, to seek implementation of the Justice Srikrishna Commission report that went into 1992-93 riots in Mumbai.  Intelligence officials are trying to find whether any protest in planned in city also. A senior officer informed that they are exploring every possible angle to keep security tightened. 

Meanwhile, Supreme Court will hear on Monday the plea of Yakub seeking stay on execution of his death sentence. This would be the last legal bid by Yakub to escape the gallows. If the curative petition is turned down, Yakub would be hanged on July 30 in Nagpur Central Prison. Nagpur jail is equipped with all facilities to carry out the execution.

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