04052026-ATR-01.qxd 5/4/2026 12:02 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY/RAIN MAX 37°C | MIN 23°C YESTERDAY MAX 37°C | MIN 21°C THREE HELD WITH MACHINE GUN IN GHARINDA AAP PROTESTS AGAINST SPIKE IN COMMERCIAL LPG REFILLS PRICE DILJIT DOSANJH: I HAVE NO FEAR OF DEATH The police arrested three persons and recovered a machine gun, two magazines and 50 cartridges from them. P2 AAP volunteers staged a protest demonstration against the spike in prices of commercial LPG refills by the Centre. P2 Punjabi singer-actor Diljit says he is trying to detach from his physical self & striving for a life led by faith, love & forgiveness. P4 » » » SUNSET MONDAY 7.12 PM SUNRISE TUESDAY 5.41 AM MONDAY | 4 MAY 2026 | AMRITSAR Drone-sourced arms module busted, 4 held Amritsar, May 3 The police have busted an arms smuggling module with the arrest of four persons and recovery of seven pistols. In a statement on Sunday, Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said the accused were in touch with Pakistanbased smugglers through social media. Arms consignments were delivered via drones and later distributed among criminal elements, he said. “Further investigation is underway to trace forward and backward linkages of this network,” he added. The arrested accused have been identified as Samarbir Singh, alias Simar (21), Satnam Singh, alias Satta (23), Tanupreet Singh (26) and Karanjot Singh, alias Sajan (26), all residents of Amritsar. The seized cache includes two 9MM Glock pistols of Austrian make, four .30 bore pistols of Chinese origin and one additional .30 bore pistol. Talking to mediapersons, Police Commissioner (CP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said Samarbir was first nabbed with two Glock pistols, leading to the arrest of his three other associates and recovery of five more weapons, he said. Both Satnam and Karanjot were allegedly working under the directions of a Pakistan-based handler. Investigations revealed that all four accused were educated and had earlier worked as salesmen in a private firm. They lived in nearby localities and were known to each other. — TNS 3 held with 12 kg heroin Amritsar, May 3 The Counter Intelligence (CI) Amritsar has dismantled a drug trafficking module and arrested three operatives leading to the seizure 12 kg of contraband from their possession. Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said the accused were identified as Gurjant Singh of Sakatra village in Tarn Taran and Arvinder Singh and Jashanpreet Singh of Bugga village in the same district. The police also impounded a black Hero motorcycle used to ferry contraband. Preliminary probe revealed that Gurjant was in direct contact with a Pakistan-based smuggler. He allegedly received heroin consignments via drones near his village and supplied them to associates on instructions from his handler. Acting on specific intelligence, the CI teams laid special nakas on the Amritsar–Chabal road near a toll plaza. The trio was intercepted during the operation, leading to the recovery of the heroin consignment. — TNS Teacher by day, food entrepreneur by evening: Lata’s ‘dhurandar’ story of grit Living in city for past 23 yrs, Maharashtra native brings her state’s flavours to Amritsar Neha Saini Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 3 She is a teacher by day and a street food entrepreneur by evening. She has a rather interesting name — Lata Dhurandhar (yes, that’s right). An art and craft teacher at Cambridge International School, Amritsar, she has been running Lata’s Kitchen, a food cart offering delectable Maharashtrian snacks, especially “vada pav”, in the Rani Ka Bagh area for the past two years. “We follow a ‘sell-until-soldout’ model. I often get requests to operate throughout the day. However, I have to be at school in the morning. So, my cart usually opens after 2 pm,” said Lata, who settled in Amritsar 23 years ago. Her husband, Mukesh, is a teacher at DAV Public School, Lawrence Road. He joins her in the afternoon to help run the small business. “We hail from Amravati in Maharashtra and moved here after marriage. I love my job as a crafts teacher because it allows me to engage in creativity. After many years in teaching, I wanted to try something new,” she shared. Running a street food business is physically demanding, involving long hours of standing and managing Lata Dhurandhar prepares food at her cart in Amritsar. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR GURU KI NAGRI’S EMBRACE Amritsar is ‘Guru Ki Nagri’. People here are generally respectful and helpful. I have always had the support of my family and my school. The management there ensures I run my small business without pressure. At work, I’m fondly known as the ‘vada pav girl’. ❝ ❞ Lata Dhurandhar, STREET FOOD ENTREPRENEUR AND ART TEACHER cooking, supplies and operations. “Food is something I love and Lata’s Kitchen is truly a labour of love. My family now helps me as well,” she said. The idea to start a food cart in a city known as a food lover’s paradise came from her search for authentic Marathi street food. “Amritsar is unique, offering flavours you won’t find any- where else. Yet, authentic Marathi street food was missing, which is why I started this venture. We serve ‘dabeli’, ‘vada pav’, ‘bhajiyas’, ‘pav bhaji’ and much more,” she said, while preparing a spicy, layered ‘misal pav’. The dish, made with sprouted moth beans (‘usal’), topped with crunchy ‘farsan’ and onions, and served with buttered ‘pav’, is one of her specialties. “That’s Kolhapuri ‘misal pav’ — popular among protein-seeking food lovers,” she added. Her day begins at 5 am and often ends close to midnight. “I prepare all the chutneys and the ‘gunpowder’ spice mix used in making ‘vada pav’ myself. Nothing synthetic is added to the food,” she emphasised. Lata has trained and employed five women, who assist her in running the cart. The business, she said, is doing well and she has recently started a South Indian food cart as well. “My daughter, who was also a teacher at a well-known private school, has now joined me in running the business,” she said. When asked about challenges as a woman running a street food cart, Lata said, “Amritsar is ‘Guru Ki Nagri’. People here are generally respectful and helpful. I have always had the support of my family and my school. The management there ensures I can run my small business without pressure. At work, I’m fondly known as the ‘vada pav girl’,” she added, with a smile. City chemists to join nationwide strike on May 20 Amritsar, May 3 Chemists and drug sellers from the city have announced a strike on May 20 in support of the national call given by their association to protest against certain government policies and issues affecting their business. The decision was taken during a meeting of the Punjab Chemists Association. Punjab Chemists Association president Surinder Duggal said, “All medical stores will remain closed on May 20 as part of a nationwide bandh. The protest aims at drawing the government’s attention to our long-pending demands.” The chemists are opposing the growing sale of medicines through online platforms, which they say is hurting small shop owners. They also raised concerns about illegal sale of drugs and lack of strict monitoring. The chemists’ body also raised questions over handling and storage of drugs by online pharmacies. They said while chemists across the country were subject to several checks by the government authorities, the online pharmacies were not. The association is demanding ban on sale of medicines online. Chemists warned that if their demands were not met, they would intensify their protest in the coming days. “However, emergency services are expected to remain available to ensure that patients do not face serious problems during the strike,” said chemists. — TNS ‘Raghu Rai: Thank you for telling Amritsar’s story, in its beauty and its turbulence’ Damanjeet Kaur & Kanwal Singh R aghu Rai’s presence was never just about who he was, but how he saw things. Through his lens, he didn’t just take photographs, he showed moments as they were, making people pause and look more closely. He was born in Jhang, Punjab, now part of Pakistan. Like many families of that time, he witnessed the horrors of Partition. Those beginnings stayed with him, quietly shaping the way he saw and photographed the world. As the Punjabi saying goes, “bande da kam bolda hai,” a person’s work speaks for itself, and in his case, it continues to speak across generations. Though he has taken his final leave from this world, his photographs remain enduring testaments to his genius. They continue to live in the spaces we inhabit, in homes, in memory and in the way we have come to see places like Amritsar. A lens before the rupture Long before narratives hardened and access became restricted in the 1980s, Raghu Rai was photographing a Punjab that was changing in front of him. Some of these images don’t just remain photographs, you carry them with you and they leave you with questions. My co-author recalls her college days, encountering a photograph of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale adjusting his “Dumala”. It was not just the subject that drew attention, but the moment itself. There was an unusual intimacy in that frame, something that made her pause and wonder how the photographer managed to get that close. And more importantly, how was that moment allowed to be captured? Especially during a time when Punjab was moving toward one of its most turbulent phases. The man behind that frame was Raghu Rai, a photographer whose work quietly entered homes across Punjab, often without people realising it. Today, images of 1980s Harmandir Sahib are widely visible on walls, in markets, on trucks and jeeps. Yet behind many of these now iconic visuals lies the eye that first framed them. restraint and depth. The frame does not seek drama. It rests in silence, allowing the viewer to feel the moment rather than interpret it. Aftermath and memory Growing up with images in Amritsar My co-author, who is from Amritsar, grew up in a home where photographs were simply part of everyday life. Almost every house had an image of Sri Harmandir Sahib, familiar, constant and quietly present. Alongside these were other photographs you would see in markets around the Golden Temple, in old shops or now even online. Many of them often without people realising it, carried Raghu Rai’s signature. To understand where these images came from, we have to go back to the early 1980s, before Operation Blue Star. Amritsar was tense, but not yet closed off. Access was limited, but it still existed. Journalists and photographers could move through spaces that would soon become inaccessible. Bhindranwale, who was becoming a powerful and controversial figure at the time, was not entirely distant from the media. He did engage with journalists on occasion, whether to present his side or respond to what was being said about him. It was in this narrow window (Clockwise from top) Inside Akal Takht Sahib, before 1984; pilgrims standing before the damaged Akal Takht Sahib in 1984; and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale tying his dumala in Amritsar. FROM BOOK: “AMRITSAR: A CITY IN REMEMBRANCE” that Raghu Rai was able to make some of his most lasting images. His photographs of Bhindranwale do not attempt to define him. They simply capture him in a moment of being. The art of presence From the Bangladesh Liberation War to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Raghu Rai’s work stands apart, not merely for its subjects, but for its sensibility. His images do not feel intrusive, they feel present. There is no visible struggle for space in his frames, no sense of force. Instead, there is a quiet acceptance as if the moment itself allowed to be documented. A member of Magnum Photos, his approach was rooted in c m y b patience and immersion rather than interruption. He did not arrive simply to capture. He observed, waited and became part of the environment he was documenting. This sensibility is equally visible beyond Punjab. His photograph of an evening prayer in Kashmir in 1989, set against the stillness of Dal Lake, reflects the same After June 1984, everything changed. Operation Blue Star reshaped not only the physical landscape of Amritsar, but also access, memory and the act of witnessing. Spaces that once allowed observation fell silent. What could be seen and what could be shown became deeply contested. In the immediate aftermath, when access to the Akal Takht was restricted, only a handful of images reached the public. Among them, Raghu Rai’s photographs stood apart. They did not explain what had happened, but allowed people to feel it. His images of pilgrims standing before the damaged Akal Takht carried a stillness heavy with disbelief. Another frame lingers on women peering into locked rooms, caught between curiosity and grief, as though searching for traces of something already lost. When these images appeared in newspapers, they did not merely inform. They became intimate encounters with history. Over time, they moved beyond documentation and settled into memory. Beyond conflict: The other Amritsar To read Raghu Rai solely through the lens of conflict is to miss the depth of his work. His Amritsar also existed in stillness, in the early morning light over the Harmandir Sahib, in the discipline of sewa and in the rhythm of everyday life. There is a tenderness in the way he photographs devotion, not as spectacle, but as something lived. His lens moved effortlessly between the extraordinary and the ordinary, giving both equal weight. In doing so, he revealed a truth often overlooked. Even in turbulent times, life continues with faith, routine and quiet endurance. Amritsar as memory and archive “When you look at a city, it’s like reading the hopes, aspirations and pride of everyone who built it.” — Hugh Newell Jacobsen Founded in 1577 by Guru Ramdas, Amritsar holds multiple pasts within it. Sikh, colonial and contemporary histories coexist in the same space. Raghu Rai does not separate these layers. He allows them to exist together, as they do in lived experience. This layered character finds expression in “Amritsar: A City in Remembrance”, edited by Gurmeet S Rai. More than a visual archive, it becomes an act of remembering. Through his lens, Amritsar is not just seen, it is felt. The Harmandir Sahib appears not as grandeur, but as stillness. Reflections in the sarovar, bowed heads, a couple walking the parikrama, kar sewa after 1984, these are not staged compositions. They are moments allowed to exist. Outside the shrine, in narrow lanes, his images take on another life, printed as postcards and passed from hand to hand, gradually becoming part of the city itself. Punjab, in his photographs, is neither romanticised nor reduced to conflict. It exists in its fullness, wounded, resilient, spiritual and deeply human. Fragments of a life still connected to soil We were told that at his home in Delhi, he kept plants gathered from across India, each carrying soil from a different place he had travelled to. There is something profoundly Punjabi in that, a relationship with “mitti” (soil) that is both physical and emotional. It feels like a metaphor for his work, collecting fragments, carrying places within him and refusing to let them remain distant. When the photographer returns to Punjab Even in later years, after achieving global recognition, his connection to Punjab remained intact. In 2025, when devastating floods submerged villages, he supported relief efforts through the Prints of Punjab initiative, conceived by his daughter Avani Rai. For him, photography was never detached from responsibility. The image was not an end. It was a form of engagement. Why his lens still matters To write about Raghu Rai today is to reflect on our relationship with images. For many of us, his photographs feel familiar, even if we never knew their origin. They are images we have seen, absorbed and carried within us. With his passing, it becomes essential to revisit not just what he photographed, but how he photographed. Because before every narrative, there was a moment, unfiltered and untouched, waiting to be seen. For us, his work does not remain confined to archives. It lives in fragments, in the images we grew up with. Raghu Rai may be remembered as the photographer who captured India. But for those who saw Punjab through his lens, he remains something closer, something more enduring — a lived memory. — Kaur is a writer from Punjab & Singh is from J&K