CALCUTTA: The Indian Red Cross announced that according to the latest information received from the Indian Comforts Fund in London, 10,000 parcels for Indian prisoners of war in Germany and Italy are at present being packed every week. This equivalent to a parcel costing Rs. 7 is being packed every minute of every day.

Each parcel contains a complete and planned diet of what is lacking in prison camp rationing. A standard parcel includes biscuits, chocolate, fish, margarine, milk, sugar and salt, tea, vegetables, Indian flour and curry powder, rice and tinned fruit.

[Meanwhile, as reported from Lahore,] Report of a young Brahmin who was shot dead by three armed dacoits on the failure of his family to provide a ransom of Rs. 1,200 has been received here from Hadiabad, a village in Kapurthala state. It is stated that the young man accompanied by another relation was returning home from a neigbouring village at about 9 o’ clock last night [Aug 23] when three outlaws armed with rifles met him in a field and threatened to kill him unless a sum of Rs. 1,200 was paid within an hour. While the young man was detained his companion was allowed to go to the village to fetch the ransom money. … Later the young man was found dead in a field.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2018