PRAYAG: Immense crowds watched the solemn ceremony of the immersion of Mahatma Gandhi`s `Asthi` at the confluence of the Ganges, Jumna and Saraswati, here this afternoon [Feb 12]. Exactly at 1-55 p.m., the copper urn containing its handful of bones was emptied into the sacred waters by Mr Ramdas Gandhi, the son of Mahatma Gandhi. Lakhs of people crowded the embankments and waded neck-deep into the waters of the `Sangam`, the sanctity of which is mentioned in the Hindu scriptures and the Veda.

The five-mile route from the railway station to the banks of the confluence were lined by big crowds at places a hundred deep. At certain vantage points people had been waiting the whole night to have a `darshan` of the urn. News agencies [Meanwhile, as reported from Sibi,] The Khan of Kalat and the Begum of Kalat and two other ladies of the Royal family went up for a joy ride in the Quaid-i-Azam`s Dakota here this morning [Feb 13]. This was the first time that the Begum had flown in an aircraft. ---News agencies