25082025-TTB-01.qxd 8/25/2025 12:14 AM Page 1 13 CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 145 NO. 234 | 16 PAGES | ~5.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881  DELHI BANGLADESH SEEKS PAK APOLOGY FOR 1971 ATROCITIES WORLD /thetribunechd RAIN BATTERS JAMMU, BRIDGE ON PATHANKOT NH COLLAPSES J&K INDIA’S AIR DEFENCE GETS ‘LASER-SHARP’ UPGRADE BACK PAGE RIGHT TIME TO MOVE ON: PUJARA RETIRES FROM ALL FORMS OF CRICKET SPORT monday | 25 august 2025 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com FLOW OF DEVOTION VISHAL KUMAR Only 1.2L of 65L left-out Bihar voters file claims None by major Oppn party: EC amid Sept 1 deadline Animesh Singh Tribune News Service Devotees carry a palanquin at a procession on the 421st anniversary of the installation of Guru Granth Sahib at Golden Temple in Amritsar. ISRO crosses first hurdle, carries out crew capsule air-drop test for Gaganyaan flight Aksheev Thakur Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 24 The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday successfully accomplished the first integrated air-drop test (IADT-01) for end-to-end demonstration of parachutebased deceleration system for the Gaganyaan mission. “This test is a joint effort of ISRO, the Indian Air Force, DRDO, Navy and the Indian Coast Guard,” ISRO said. On August 21, the ISRO Chairman, Dr V Narayanan, had said the upcoming test for the Gaganyaan mission ISRO in a joint exercise tests the parachute-based deceleration system for Gaganyaan missions near Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday. PTI included an integrated air drop test which involved dropping the crew capsule from an altitude of approximately 3.5 to 4 km using a helicopter. The test is crucial for the In Punjab, 55,000 arms permit seekers dope +ve Aman Sood Tribune News Service Patiala, August 24 As many as 55,318 of the 3,65,872 applicants who underwent the dope test while applying for an arms licence in Punjab have been found positive over the past eight years. The border district of Amritsar tops the list with 18,538 of the 61,158 applicants returning positive, followed by Tarn Taran with 6,100. According to an RTI plea filed by activist Sanjeev Goyal, these applicants were tested since 2018. Every applicant paid Rs 1,500 for the test, though it costs the government just Rs 700. Punjab collected around Rs 55 crore by way of these tests. The state is grappling with rising drug abuse with youngsters falling prey to “chitta”. continued on page 8 TESTED FOUND +VE Amritsar Tarn Taran Bathinda Patiala Barnala Faridkot Fatehgarh Sahib Moga Muktsar Pathankot Sangrur Ferozepur Gurdaspur Hoshiarpur Ludhiana Jalandhar Kapurthala Mansa Malerkotla Fazilka 61,158 27,007 36,927 19,009 9,684 17,536 9,579 19,360 26,990 2,744 22,804 19,594 16,289 1,681 3,165 19,045 4,486 11,029 3,638 18,176 18,538 6,100 4,430 4,207 1,064 2,661 3,182 2,321 2,245 6 1,087 2,022 1,034 113 238 1,397 331 1,285 356 1,191 Bhartesh Singh Thakur Tribune News Service CRPF ex-DG Dayal named deputy NSA New Delhi, August 24 Former CRPF and ITBP Director General Anish Dayal Singh has been appointed the Deputy National Security Adviser (NSA), with a mandate to handle internal affairs, official sources said. Singh, a 1988-batch IPS officer of the Manipur cadre, retired from service in December 2024. He brings extensive experience to the role, having served for nearly 30 years in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) before heading the ITBP and most recently, , the CRPF — TNS . Chandigarh, August 24 Ambala Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Verma has recalled a controversial order passed by his predecessor, Renu Phulia, that revoked a 20-year-old stay on the sale and purchase of 14-acre land on the outskirts of Panchkula. Phulia’s decision had raised serious concerns as a sale agreement for the land was executed between her husband and former IAS officer SS Phulia and her son Neelanchal. The 14-acre land was part of the property inherited by the legal heirs of Bhagwant Singh, who was the owner of around 1,396 acres in seven villages of Panchkula district — Beed Babupur, Beed New Delhi, August 24 A man accused of killing his wife by setting her on fire over a dowry demand of Rs 36 lakh was allegedly shot in the leg by the police in Noida on Sunday after he attempted to escape from custody. The accused, Vipin Bhati, Renu Phulia had lifted 20-yr-old stay on 14-acre plot Firozadi, Bhareli, Sangrana, Barwala, Jaloloi and Fatehpur Viran. On February 24, 2023, the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the Collector, Agrarian, Panchkula, to redetermine the surplus area of the land that had vested with the government. The permissible area is also yet to be determined. While lifting the 20-year-old stay, Phulia, in her order dated September 13, 2023, observed that Prithvi Raj Chabbra, his sister Shashi Gulati and Sunil Kumar Gulati (both former IAS officers) were absolute property owners in the revenue continued on page 8 8 years after death of 37 in P’kula riots, no conviction yet Bhartesh Singh Thakur Tribune News Service At least 37 persons were killed in clashes between security forces and dera followers in Panchkula on August 25, 2017. FILE Chandigarh, August 24 Eight years after 37 people were killed in riots in Panchkula on August 25, 2017, after a CBI special court pronounced Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh guilty of rape and criminal intimidation, not one person has been convicted so far. In what came to be known as the worst riots in Haryana’s history, properties worth Rs 10.48 crore were damaged in Violence had erupted after dera chief was held guilty of rape, criminal intimidation Panchkula, with clubs, shops, restaurants and banks targeted. Six persons were killed in Sirsa, where the dera headquarters is located, and the Army was called in. In Panipat, four government vehicles were set on fire. In Kaithal, Kalayat and Cheeka, curfew was imposed after incidents of arson. Violence also spread to HOSHIARPUR: Four more persons injured in the LPG tanker explosion at Mandiala village succumbed to their injuries on Sunday. With this, the death toll in the incident has gone up to seven. The incident took place when a pickup vehicle collided with an LPG tanker on the Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur highway late on Friday. INSIDE Ex-CMconfinedamid J’khandtribal unrest Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav ride motorcycles during the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar on Sunday. PTI 2 PAK WOMEN FOUND ON BIHAR ROLL, PROBE ON The Ministry of Home Affairs has initiated a probe after two elderly Pakistan women, Imrana Khanam and Firdousia Khanam, were found on the electoral rolls in Bihar’s Bhagalpur. The two had entered India in 1956 and had overstayed visas. They had secured Aadhaar and voter ID cards, and had even been verified during EC’s recent special intensive revision (SIR) exercise. INSIDE The Opposition has consistently claimed that the SIR is intended to exclude poor, migrant and Dalit voters from the electoral rolls. They allege that the EC is colluding with the ruling BJP-led NDA gov- ernment at the Centre to influence the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is currently leading the “Vote Adhikar Yatra” in Bihar continued on page 8 RANCHI: Former Jharkhand CM Champai Soren, a leader of the opposition BJP was , placed under house arrest on Sunday in view of a protest by tribal outfits against land acquisition for a state-run health institute in Ranchi. “This is a preventive measure to maintain law and order,” the police said. — PTI Vance:Tariffstoforce Russiatoendconflict NEW YORK: US Vice-President JD Vance on Sunday said President Donald Trump had applied “aggressive economic leverage” such as “secondary tariffs” on India to force Russia to stop bombing Ukraine. He remained confident the US could broker an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine. INSIDE Noida dowry death accused tries to flee, shot in leg Former IAS officer’s order ‘facilitating’ Panchkula land saleto kin recalled AMRITSAR DIST WORST DISTRICT smooth safe landing of the crew to earth from space. ISRO had developed this as part of pre-project activities of the human spaceflight project well before the official Gaganyaan project was approved in 2019. In May 2023, ISRO received the crew module structure simulated assembly for the integrated air-drop test meant for validating the sequence and performance of parachute systems in the Gaganyaan mission. The module was designed by the Human Space Flight Centre, ISRO. The Department of continued on page 8 edit: space mission New Delhi, August 24 Even as 65 lakh voters in Bihar face the prospect of being deleted from the electoral rolls after September 1 — the deadline for filing claims and objections — only 1,21,143 voters have come forward to lodge complaints till August 24. This means that only 0.16 per cent of the state’s 7.24 crore voters have filed objections regarding inclusion and exclusion of their names in the draft rolls. Data released by the Election Commission (EC) on Sunday also reported that only 10 objections had been submitted by political parties, all of these by the CPI(ML) Liberation. The commission has described the response from political parties regarding objections to the draft electoral list, which was uploaded on August 1, as poor. Opposition parties, including the RJD, Congress and Left groups, have countered these claims by alleging that when their booth-level officers (BLOs) approach the district authorities to record objections, they are turned away. Hoshiarpur tanker blast toll rises to 7 Punjab and Delhi. The Army had to be called in at Mansa, Malout and Kotkapura districts of Punjab, and curfew was imposed in seven districts. In Delhi, two coaches of a train and six buses were torched. Worse, police records and court judgments accessed by The Tribune show that in as many as 152 cases of rioting filed, dera followers have been acquitted in 132. Initially, 177 cases were registered, but 25 were later cancelled or clubbed with others. continued on page 8 Today’s issue is of 16 pages, including four-page Delhi Tribune. c m y b Allegedly set wife on fire over ~36-lakh demand a resident of Sirsa village in Greater Noida, tried to flee around 1.30 pm while being escorted for a routine medical examination. He was chased and apprehended after being shot in the leg, an officer said. Bhati was later produced before a local court, which remanded him in 14-day police custody. The accused’s mother, Daya (55), has also been arrested. The horrific crime came to light on Saturday after disturbing videos surfaced on social media purportedly showing Bhati and another woman assaulting his wife, dragging her by the hair and beating her. — TNS