RAWALPINDI:- The Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) during an action foiled a bid to smuggle heroin abroad and arrested a smuggler at New Islamabad International Airport (NIIAP), informed sources on Friday.

The accused was shifted to ANF Police Station where he was identified as Muhammad Younis, a resident of Peshawar. According to sources, the ANF staff was checking the passengers and their luggage at NIIAP when suspicious activities of a passenger drew attention of the ANF staff. The passenger was taken into custody and was brought to the ANF counter where he confessed of having 100 heroin filled capsules in his stomach during investigation, they said. ANF brought the smuggler to Benazir Bhutto Hospital where the doctor’s recovered heroin filed capsules from the stomach of the smuggler. A case has also been registered against the smuggler with ANF Police Station, sources added. A senior official of ANF told media that the passenger was trying to board an Islamabad-Qatar bound flight of a private airline when he was arrested on charges of smuggling drugs by digesting heroin filled capsules.–Staff Reporter

Visually impaired people to have reading facility at NLP

ISLAMABAD: National Library of Pakistan (NLP) has established a well-equipped computer lab facility for visually impaired people, as a part of its efforts to provide reading facilities to people with disabilities. According to a senior official of NLP, the computer lab has been established with the joint efforts of National History and Literary Heritage (NH&LH) and Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications. The lab is equipped with 20 computers initially with latest software through which visually impaired people can get knowledge about diverse subjects without any hassle, the official revealed.

Earlier, NLP established a `Braille Book Corner’ with placement of all the required material for the visually impaired people so that they could study in a comfortable environment and not feel deprived of reading opportunities. The official revealed that NLP was neglected since its inception and no development work was initiated during the last few years. NH&LH Division since assuming responsibilities to supervise this institution has taken strong development initiatives and has turned it into a state-of-the-art knowledge centre for the visitors. NLP has also established Camoes Corner and Women Resource Centre in the library as well as initiated a project of digitization of 10,000 rare and old documents, the official said.–APP

 Lok Virsa to organise exhibition on traditional calligraphy

ISLAMABAD:  National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (Lok Virsa) will hold an exhibition on “Traditional Calligraphy by calligraphist Muhammad Azeem Iqbal” from June 8 to 14 at Heritage Museum, Garden Avenue, Shakarparian marking the holy month of Ramazan.

The exhibition will comprise of fifty calligraphic artefacts/paintings on Islamic arts in various mediums like leather, wood work, copper, precious stones. Calligraphy, a centuries-old decorative ornamental handwriting art, hails from the Greek civilization. The word `calligraphy’ is a combination of two Greek words ‘kalli’ (beautiful) and ‘graphia’ (to write). Since the advent of Islam, its holy book, the Quran, was written on different mediums. Calligraphists of that era used many writing styles to transcribe the manuscript of the holy book.  Since then, this particular art has associated itself with spirituality and is the most popular form of design arts in the Muslim world. After acquiring the status of the noblest of all arts, it has been adorned on the ceiling, exterior, interior and domes of all famous mosques, shrines, buildings and monuments of religious importance in Islam.

Azim’s calligraphy stresses on the sacredness and spirit of the written word with subjective aesthetics in pure oriental tradition. Using three-dimensional techniques in wood, metal, gold, silver and leather, Azeem creates his calligraphic works with an intense devotion, which goes beyond his passion play as an artist. The exhibition will be open for the public at Lok Virsa Heritage Museum till June 14 during working hours from 10 am to 4 pm (except Monday).–APP