The Sikh Regimental Centre (SRC) at Ramgarh cantonment observed Saturday as the 123rd Saragarhi Day to pay respects to the 22 martyrs of the 1897 battle of Saragahi with SRC commandant Brig. M. Sri Kumar leading officers and jawans to lay wreaths at the Saragarhi Memorial.

The ceremony, held every year on September 12, was followed by a function at Gurudwara Sahib.

The Battle of Saragarhi was held on September 12, 1897 between the Sikh soldiers of the British raj and Afghan tribesmen. That day, close to 24,000 Orakzai and Afridi tribesmen were seen near Gogra, at Samana Suk, and around Saragarhi, cutting off Fort Gulistan from Fort Lockhart.

The Afghans attacked the outpost of Saragarhi where thousands of them surrounded the fort, preparing for a major assault. Led by Havildar Ishar Singh, the soldiers in the fort—all Sikhs _ chose to fight to the death, in what is considered by some military historians as one of the greatest last stands history.^[

The post was recaptured two days later by another British Indian contingent.

The Indian Army’s 4th battalion of the Sikh Regiment commemorates the battle every year on September 12 as Saragarhi Day. So does the British Army.

Man's body found in pool of blood

Slag Road at Bhuiyandih in Sitaramdera thana area where the body was found on Saturday. Pic by Animesh Sengupta

A 40-year-old man’s body was found lying in a pool of blood on Slag Road in the densely-populated Bhuiyandih under Sitaramdera thana area on Saturday.

There was no mark of injury on the body.

Police recovered the body at about 10 am and sent it to the MGM Medical College Hospital for a Covid-19 test before sending it to the medical college mortuary at Dimna for a post-mortem.

The police could not make out whether it is a case of murder or not.

"We have seen the body meticulously and found no mark of injury on it. But at the same time the extent of blood that oozed out from the victim's nose put us in a fix. It may be a case murder or a case of accident or something else, which can be detected only after an autopsy is done," said Sitaramdera thana OC, Anjani Kumar Singh while talking to The Telegraph Online.

An official posted at the Sitaramdera thana said even if the man was killed on being assaulted by someone the incident must have taken place around midnight or at the small hours as the road remains completely deserted after midnight.

But for getting a clue to the circumstances that caused the man to die, the police have started scanning CCTV cameras installed privately along Slag Road.

"We are getting footage of a number of CCTV cameras scanned so that we may at least spot the man in any of the footage, if not able to see the way he died. If the man fell victim to any criminal gang that will also come to the fore," said the Sitaramdera OC.

Significantly, a 35-year-old woman who was a resident of Chhayanagar, an urban slum in Bhuiyandih, was found bludgeoned to death near Water Filtration plant on Sakchi-Mango road under Sitaramdera thana area on August 28 morning.

NDRF search for 12-year-old

The NDRF team on Saturday conducted a massive search operation over a stretch of 10 kms of Barakar River in Chuglo under Muffasil police station of Giridih to locate the body of a 12-year-old boy, Sujal Kumar,who drowned two days ago, but failed to find it.

DC, Giridih, Rahul Kumar Sinha and SP, Amit Renu visited the spot where the child drowned.

The boy, a son of a para-teacher, drowned on Thursday evening when he was bathing with his mother and other women who went to Nawataad Ghat to perform rituals on the occasion of Jitia festival.

The DC said that local divers earlier attempted but failed to find the boy. Now the team of NDRF 9th Battalion has been called. The child is being searched and they will take up the search operation upto 20 km radius in the river. Every effort is being made to find the child.

62 discharged from Covid centres 

Altogether 57 Covid patients were discharged from six Health Centres of Dhanbad out of which 22 were dicharged from Nirsa Polytechnic Dhanbad, 13 from Sadar Hospital of Dhanbad, 11 from Regional Hospital of BCCL in Bhuli, nine from Zonal training institute of Railway at Bhuli and one each from Wedlock Greens and PMCH Cath lab.

Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner, Uma Shankar Singh said that all discharged patients have been provided medical kits and asked to remain in home quarantine for next for next 1r days.

Around 400 patients are undergoing treatment at different Covid Treatment facilities of Dhanbad.

Rail SP trasferred

Dhanbad Superintendent of Rail Police, Deepak kumar Sinha has been transferred on Saturday and made SP of Jamtara. The transfer took place on Saturday along with 10 other IPS officers in the state.

Highway robbers arrested

A team of policemen from three police stations namely Bakatha, Gorhar and Chouparan laid a trap chasing a SUV for a kilometer on GT road to nab five highway robbers.

Subdivisional police officer of Barhi, Manish Kumar said after a tip off received by superintendent of police Karthik S.

Three of the robbers managed to escape and two were caught.

Police managed to arrest the three later.

Police seized their SUV and recovered a country made pistol, hockey sticks, rods, cricket bats and five mobile phones. Kumar termed this as a big success claiming that in last few months, several such actions had sent highway robbers to jail.