21092023-ATR-01.qxd 9/21/2023 12:25 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 33°C | MIN 25°C YESTERDAY MAX 36°C | MIN 25°C ART FEST TO HELP PROTECT PUNJAB’S CULTURE: MINISTER RAPPER SHUBH’S STILL ROLLIN INDIA TOUR GETS CANCELLED HINA KHAN ON HER DEBUT SINGLE BARSAAT AA GAYI Punjab Art Initiative-Amritsar Edition, inaugurated by Punjab Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO. P2 Canadian rapper Shubh, whose real name is Shubhneet Singh, has landed in trouble after his alleged support for Khalistan.P3 Hina Khan is set to make her singing debut with Barsaat Aa Gayi, and called it a ‘surreal’ experience. P4 » » SUNSET THURSDAY 6.28 PM SUNRISE FRIDAY 6:17 AM » THURSDAY | 21 SEPTEMBER 2023 | AMRITSAR Robbery bid foiled at SBI branch in Dhotian village Suspects fired at ASI leaving him seriously injured before fleeing Our Correspondent Tarn Taran, September 20 An ASI of the Punjab Police, Balwinder Singh, who was on the PCR duty near the State Bank of India (SBI) at Dhotian village on Wednesday, was shot at and seriously injured by robbers, when he tried to prevent them from looting the bank. The injured ASI was admitted to a local private hospital in Tarn Taran where his condition was stated to be critical. SSP Gurmeet Singh Chauhan said the police had laid nakas and stepped up patrolling in the area to arrest the suspects. Appreciating the ASI for showing courage, the SSP said Balwinder saved Rs 20 lakh in cash, which arrived at bank today, from being looted. Vishaljit Singh, SP (Investigation), who visited the crime Two arrested with illegal weapons Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 20 The Cantonment police have arrested two persons for allegedly possessing two country-made weapons. Those arrested were identified as Jagtar Singh, alias Vicky, a resident of the Loharaka road, and Lovejit Singh, alias Kalu, a resident of the Housing Board Colony, Ranjit Avenue. Both were now living in Gurdaspur district. The police investigate at the crime spot in Dhotian village. and stepped up patrolling ❝The police have laid nakas solved soon as the police in the area. The case would be teams are conducting raids to nab robbers. ❞ Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, SSP, TARN TARAN spot, said four armed masked robbers came to the SBI on two bikes. They parked their vehicles outside bank. The SP said three robbers entered the bank and one of them stood outside to keep a watch. In the meantime, someone noticed suspicious activities of the masked rob- bers and managed to come out of the bank. He brought the matter into the notice of the cop on the PCR duty, who was just a few yards away from the bank. The policeman, ASI Balwinder Singh, immediately came to the bank gate and closely observed the robbers, who were inside. The robber standing outside the bank informed his accomplices inside bank about the ASI. When the trio rushed out of the bank, they entered into scuffle with the ASI and opened fire at him. When the ASI returned the fire, the robbers started firing at him indiscriminately and managed to escape from the spot. The whole incident was captured in the footage of the CCTV cameras installed at the bank. Chauhan said the case would be solved soon as the police teams were conducting raids to nab robbers. Drug peddler running cartel from jail sent to two-day police remand Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 20 The city police have got twoday remand of drug peddler Gurwinder Singh, alias Mehak, a resident of Pandori village, who is currently lodged in the Kapurthala jail. Mehak is also wanted by Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in connection with the seizure of 70-kg heroin from the Mumbai port. He was running his drug cartel from the Kapurthala jail on phone. Gurjit Singh, alias Baba, a resident of Mehmood Nagar in Cheecha village, located near the Indo-Pak border, spilled the beans about Mehak’s involvement in the drug racket. Baba was arrested with 50 gm of heroin and Rs 13.50 lakh drug money four days ago. During interrogation, the CIA Singh, ❝Gurwinder contactalias Mehak, was in with a drug smuggler through mobile phone which was confiscated by the Kapurthala jail authorities following information provided by the Amritsar police. ❞ Abhimanyu Rana, ADDITIONAL DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF POLICE staff had recovered 800 gm of heroin on his disclosure. Abhimanyu Rana, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), said Mehak was brought on production warrant from the Kapurthala jail and produced in a court, which granted his two-day police remand, for further investigation. He said Mehak was in con- tact with drug smuggler through mobile phone which was confiscated by the Kapurthala jail authorities following information provided by the Amritsar police. He said on Mehak’s instructions, Baba used to send contraband to his suppliers. The court also extended Baba’s police remand for further interrogation. Baba had two criminal cases of theft, fraud, NDPS Act, Arms Act and Prisoner Act registered against him. Mehak had four criminal cases registered against him. Besides provisions of the NDPS Act, he was booked for culpable homicide by the Lopoke police and under the Arms Act by the Gurdaspur police. A case under the NDPS Act was registered against Mehak by the Mumbai ATS. Robbers gang busted, 3 held Tribune News Service Woman, daughter booked for creating ruckusinSDMcourt Amritsar, September 20 The city police have busted a gang of robbers and arrested three of its members besides recovering a car snatched from a Ludhiana-based trader on Tuesday within 24 hours of the incident. The victim, identified as Gurpreet Singh, of Ludhiana had come to Model Industrial Park in the Maqboolpura area for some work. Following preliminary interrogation of arrested suspects, the police booked their three accomplices. Raids are on to arrest them. Those arrested were identified as Pardeep Singh and Varinder Singh of Udonangal Khurd village and Shamsher Singh of Ainokot village in Gurdaspur district. Their interrogation led to the nomination of notorious criminal Lovepreet Singh of Chone village in Gurdaspur district, Gagandeep Singh of Kuhatwind Hindua village and Gurjant Singh, alias Raja, of Ainokot village in Tarn Taran, September 20 A woman identified as Rupinder Kaur and her mother Kuljit Kaur, residents of Beharipur village, who created ruckus at the office of the Khadoor Sahib SDM on September 14, were booked by the Goindwal Sahib police on Tuesday. The police said the duo entered the SDM office while they were live on social media via mobile phone. Rupinder came to the SDM court in connection with her appearance in a case. She entered the SDM office and inquired about the record of her case that was pending in the court. SDM Deepak Bhatia said he tried his best to convince her to follow the rules to get the record but she did not listen. The SDM said Rupinder’s act not only created disturbance but also wasted the precious time of the court leading to the harassment of the general public. Both the suspects were absconding, the police said. — OC The suspects in custody of the police in Amritsar on Wednesday. Gurdaspur district. Gurpreet stated to the police that some unknown armed persons snatched his car (bearing registration No. PB65-CQ-4145) when he went to the Model Industrial Park. The police authorities immediately started investigation leading to the arrest of Pardeep, Varinder and Shamsher Singh. The police recovered car from them. Abhimanyu Rana, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), said Pardeep had two criminal cases, including that of the NDPS Act, registered against him while Shamsher was booked under one case of the NDPS Act. Similarly, Gagandeep had three cases, including one of attempt to murder, snatching and the NDPS Act, and Gurjant had two cases of vehicle lifting registered against him, the ADCP said. Lovepreet was booked in eight cases of snatching, robbery and the NDPS Act, he said. Roadways, mini-bus union strike irks commuters Amritsar, September 20 Passengers faced inconvenience as the Punjab Roadways, PUNBUS, PRTC Contractual Workers Union and Mini-bus Operators’s Union went on strike today to impress upon the government to accept their longpending demands. Although the contractual workers union called off their protest at 3 pm, the state-run buses started plying only after 5 pm. Long-route evening buses for Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu, Ganganagar and other places departed at their scheduled time. Loss of government-run buses was a gain for private buses, which recorded high footfall of passengers. Commuters at the Shaheed Madan Lal Dhingra Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT) said private bus operators raked in moolah as women passengers queued outside their buses. Passengers vied with each other to secure a seat in private buses. They have been preferring government buses over private ones since the Members of the contractual workers union raise slogans against government in Amritsar on Wednesday. introduction of free travel for women passengers. Kewal Singh, president, Amritsar Depot I, Punjab Roadways, PUNBUS, PRTC Contractual Workers Union, said the staff of the state-run buses was on strike and staged a protest at the workshop here today. He said the strike was withdrawn in the afternoon after the government gave a five per cent hike in their salary and reinstated at least 500 employees, who were fired from job for different reasons recently, and gave the union an appointment to meet Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on September 29. He said their main demands were regularisation of 800 contractual workers and hiring of 3,500 outsourced employees on contract. On the other hand, members of the Minibus Operators’s Union staged a protest at Kaleyan Wala village, near Choggawan, and blocked vehicular traffic. The union members protested against the government for not fulfilling their demands, including renewal of permit of their vehicles and extending free-of-cost travel facility for women passengers offered in private buses to mini-buses in order to give their owners an equal opportunity for earning. Baldev Singh Babbu, union president, said if the government did not listen to their demands, they would be forced to intensify their protest. He said wrong policies of the government were the reason behind reduction of employment opportunities in the sector. He recalled that 650 minibuses used to ply on roads during the nineties. Now, their number had gone down to 250. Previous governments cancelled permits of hundreds of mini-buses, he said. Recently, the state government stopped plying of 35 minibuses on the Lopoke area route, he added. — TNS Students lift dharna after 3 armed persons loot chemist shop Stalled civil work irks varsitygivesintodemands Maqboolpura residents Allows PhD scholar’s entry on campus The two suspects in custody of the Amritsar police on Wednesday. The police said during patrolling, officials of the Gumtala police chowki received a tip-off following which a naka was laid near Ganda Nullah. A car was signalled to stop at the Ganda Nullah naka. During search, the police recovered two weapons from car occupants identified as Jagtar and Lovejit Singh. The police also confiscated 11 bullets from their possession. The duo could not give satisfactory answers to the police queries. So, they were arrested and a case under Section 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act was registered against them. They were produced in a court and brought on police remand for further investigation. The police was checking their antecedents and source of the weapons. Amritsar, September 20 After day-long dharna by students’ organisations and supporting farmers’ outfits against the Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), the issues were resolved after several meetings with protesters and the university administration. The students’ organisations, including Sath, SFS and PSU (Lalkar) were protesting and demanding roll back of the GNDU decision banning entry of Vijay Kumar, a political science scholar, and changing his PhD status to part-time from fulltime. Giving in to students demand, the authorities called Vijay at university for discussion after which his entry was allowed on the campus. “I had demanded that my PhD should be reverted to full-time and my entry on the campus be allowed. The administration agreed to both the terms. So, we have called Students and farmers protest near university in Amritsar. off the dharna,” said Vijay. The matter had become a bone of contention between the university authorities and the students faction led by Students for Society (SFS), who had been sitting on dharna for the past three days. Today, the students’ organisations were joined by farmer unions with members blocking the GT road in the evening that led to traffic jam. The university had banned entry of Vijay following a series of protests led by him over a fine of Rs 10,000 imposed on a girl law student citing indiscipline. — TNS Amritsar, September 20 Three armed persons looted a chemist shop in Vallah here late last night. They took away Rs 55,000 from the shop at gunpoint. Two employees were present at the shop at the time of incident. The incident was captured in the footage of the CCTV camera installed at the shop. The miscreants were wearing masks. The police teams reached the spot and took the CCTV footage into their custody. The police said investigation was under progress to identify the suspects, who also took away some perfume bottles, from the shop. In the CCTV footage, a robber carrying a pistol was seen threatening an employee of the shop. Mohit Kumar, Station House Officer, Maqboolpura police station, said the police had got vital clues in the case and it would be cracked soon. A case had been registered, he said. An employee told the police that they were preparing to close the shop around 10.30 pm when three youths armed with pistols came inside. He c m y b WARD WATCH WARD NO. 22 AMRITSAR Three robbers at the chemist shop in Vallah. TRIBUNE PHOTO said they threatened to shoot them and forcibly took out Rs 45,000 from the cash box. He said the suspects also snatched his purse containing Rs 10,000 in cash. He said earlier too, theft had taken place at the shop. As per information, there were six miscreants out of which three remained outside the chemist shop while the other three went inside for committing robbery. A police official wishing not to be named said one of the suspects was arrested and interrogation was under progress to identify the remaining miscreants. He said the suspects would be arrested soon. In the second incident, a finance firm employee identified as Manish Kumar of Moga was looted of Rs 1.39 lakh by three unknown motorcycle-borne armed persons on September 14. A complaint was lodged with the Beas police yesterday. The complainant alleged that he worked in Muthoot Microfin as collection agent. He collected installments amounting to Rs 1.39 lakh from Balsara village. He was going to Beas in the evening and when he reached near Waraich village, unknown persons looted cash, mobile and other documents from him. The police have registered a case in this regard. — TNS Amritsar, September 20 Stalled civil work in a few streets of Maqboolpura, overflowing sewer, loose hanging power cables and double lane of the main road are some of the major demands of residents of Ward No. 22. Tarsem Singh, a resident of Maqboolpura, said there were 18 lanes in the area. Almost all of them were cemented. Couple of these streets were dug up for replacing worn out pipes but they were not properly repaired. Now, residents and commuters had to fend for themselves and face hassles every day while commuting on these streets. He rued that despite repeated requests to the civic authorities, the problem remained unsolved. Bhupinder Singh, another resident, said occasional mixing of water with sewage due Continued on page 2 A dug up street in Ward No. 22 of Amritsar. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR