P1 bottom 2 col, Jammu, latest news,

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5 arrested for petrol pump robbery in
Jammu
Jammu Tawi, Dec 30: Five men, including the kingpin of a gang of robbers, were arrested
and Rs 2.31 lakh in cash looted from a petrol pump employee recovered by police in the
border area of Jammu district, officials said on Thursday.

Giving details, Jammu Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Chandan Kohli said the arrests
were made in connection with an incident that took place in the Arnia area on Tuesday and
the looted cash amounting to Rs 2.31 lakh was recovered within 48 hours by police.

He said eight men attacked the petrol pump employee, Kaku Ram, with sharp weapons and
looted Rs 2.31 lakh from him.

A case was lodged at the Arnia police station and a probe launched, the SSP said.

Three teams were formed under the supervision of Superintendent of Police (SP),
Headquarters, Ramnish Gupta.

Acting on “reliable information”, police zeroed in on the accused and arrested five of them.

The arrested men have been identified as Gurnam Singh alias Goru, Subash Kumar alias
Pampi, Amrik Singh alias Kaka, Jagandeep Singh alias Babbel and Rahul Kumar, police said.

Police have recovered the looted cash and have also seized three sharp weapons and two-
wheelers used in the crime.

During interrogation, the accused told the police that they had carried out reconnaissance of
the area.

Further investigation in the case is going on and more arrests are likely to be made, police
said.
P1 2 col, Jammu, latest news
10 cattle smugglers arrested in
Jammu, 32 bovine rescued
Jammu Tawi, Dec 30: With the arrest of 10 smugglers on the outskirts of Jammu city and
seizing of 32 bovines from them, police on Thursday claimed to have foiled their bid to
smuggle the cattle, officials said.

The Police teams intercepted four vehicles at three different locations and rescued 28 bovine
animals, including 14 bovines at Ban Toll Plaza Nagrota, 10 cattle at Jhajjar Kotli and 8 at
Sidhra bridge during checking on Wednesday evening, they said.

The arrested accused have been identified as Rafqat Ahmed, Haroon Ahmed, Rajinder
Choudhary, Pottu, Afraz Ahmed Khatana, Jameel Ahmed, Mumtaz Ahmed, Mohammad
Iqbal, Jaffar Ahmed and Imran Ahmed. Further investigations are on, they said.

p1 bottom 5 col
Omicron in India:‘Surge likely in
January'
Ruchika Chitravanshi

As Omicron cases rise around the world, more data about the variant is now being generated.

Gautam Menon is professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University, and professor (on
lien) with the Theoretical Physics and Computational Biology groups at the Institute of
Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.

Professor Menon tells Ruchika Chitravanshi that it is not the number of Omicron cases but
how many of them are getting hospitalised that should concern us.

There are concerns that the number of Omicron cases detected in India is an
underestimation. Given that, how should we ramp up our genome sequencing efforts?
The number of detected cases almost surely underestimates the actual number. Exactly by
how much is difficult to say, since -- at least as far as we know now -- symptoms tend to be
milder in those with some form of prior immunity and many will be asymptomatic anyway
when infected.

It is possible that the actual number of Omicron cases currently may exceed the number of
detected cases by a substantial factor, but we are unlikely to find them with our current
testing.

For me, what matters far less is the number of detected cases. It's the fraction of those
infected who may need hospitalisation that should be the question right now.

The total number of Covid cases in India has been below 10,000. How long before the
variant very much present in our country, even among those with no travel history,
leads to a surge?
Also, how concerned are you about such cases since our major focus on genome
sequencing is for international travellers currently?

There was a case of one patient in Karnataka who had no known connection to any
international travel. This suggested some level of community spread.

Given what we know of how Omicron has spread outside India, in the UK and Denmark, it is
likely that we will see a surge in India as well, likely by January.

At that point, we may have to re-evaluate our sequencing strategies to detect hotspots of
community transmission of Omicron.

Now that it has been more than three weeks since Omicron was detected in India, what
do we know about with greater surety about the variant? Can we agree that the variant
is less severe, though more infectious?

It is certainly more infectious.

Preliminary reports suggest that the likelihood is that it leads to less severe disease overall,
although we can only be sure of this in the coming weeks, since the fractions of critical cases
and associated mortality take longer to assess, because there are lags.

What does it mean for India and do you think it can cause a third wave here, given what
is happening in the UK and the US where it is becoming the dominant strain?

I am certain that there will be an increase in cases of Omicron in the coming weeks, given
what we know of its spread elsewhere in the world.
Whether the substantial hybrid immunity present in India can protect against severe
consequences of the disease remains to be seen, but it is not unreasonable to be hopeful about
this.

Do you think there is a threat that Omicron, even if it is less severe, can lead to more
mutations, which might cause more severe diseases? Or could it mark the endemic stage
with the virus now becoming less virulent?

There is no doubt, at least in my mind, that Covid will become an endemic disease, with or
without the Omicron variant.

It may well mutate further, but whether it will mutate into a version that may cause more
severe disease is an open question and it isn't useful to speculate about this. Courtesy; Rediff

P1 3rd deck 3 col, India, Latest news,

Jammu kashmir, jammu,
Rains to lash J&K on Jan 5,6
Thursday, December 30: Parts of North and Northwest India are set to make a rough start to
2022, as intense rainfall and snowfall conditions have been forecast across these regions in
the opening week of the near year.

As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a fresh, intense western disturbance
(WD) is expected to hit the Western Himalayan Region between January 4 and 7, 2022, and
the plains of Northwest India between January 5 to 7, 2022.

Under its influence, fairly widespread rainfall/snowfall are expected across the Western
Himalayan Region from January 4 to 7, with the possibility of isolated heavy falls on January
5 and 6 over Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

Furthermore, light/moderate scattered to fairly widespread rains may lash Punjab, Haryana,
Chandigarh, Delhi, north Rajasthan and west Uttar Pradesh from January 5 to 7.

The impact of this WD may even stretch down to parts of Central India, as light isolated
showers have been forecast over Madhya Pradesh, south Rajasthan and Gujarat on January 6-
7.
Until this system hits, however, cold conditions are likely to prevail over the northern half of
the country. In fact, between December 30 and January 3, cold waves have been predicted in
some pockets of Punjab, Haryana and North Rajasthan.

Dense fog is also likely to blanket parts of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,
alongside East and Northeast Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim,
Odisha, Assam and Meghalaya.

Thereafter, a lingering system may also produce isolated to scattered rainfall/snowfall over
Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh from January 1-3.

In view of these predictions, the IMD has placed an orange alert over Punjab, Haryana,
Chandigarh, Delhi and Rajasthan on December 30, so as to instruct people to "be prepared"
for the cold wave and ground frost conditions.

The weather alerts for the heavy rainfall caused by the intense western disturbance will be
issued by the start of next week, i.e. January 3.