Punjab Police thwarted farmers' attempt to go to Chandigarh on the Samyukta Kisan Morcha's call for a week-long dharna beginning Wednesday, as multiple checkpoints were set up across the state and security stepped up at all entry points of the Union Territory.
Following the eviction of protesting farmers from the Shambhu border, Haryana security personnel began removing cemented barricades erected to prevent Punjab farmers from reaching Delhi. The Shambhu-Ambala road, closed for over a year, is being cleared with JCBs and other machinery. Meanwhile, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha announced dharnas outside deputy commissioners' offices in protest against the Punjab Police crackdown. The groups criticized the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab for evicting the protesters and detaining farmer leaders on Wednesday. The police action was justified by Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, who said industries and businesses were hit hard due to the prolonged closure of the highways. The protesting farmers, led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, had been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points since February 13, 2022.
Dozens of Indian immigrants, mostly from Punjab, were deported from the United States after attempting to enter the country illegally. They were returned to India in shackles, having spent lakhs of rupees on the journey. Many of the deportees said they were duped by travel agents who promised them a better life in the US. Their families had sold land, borrowed money, and mortgaged their properties to finance the trip. The deportees are now facing a bleak future, having lost their money and their dreams of a better life in the US.
Punjab Police launched a statewide operation against drugs, conducting raids at more than 750 locations as the cabinet sub-committee on the drug menace held its first meeting on Saturday. Around 12,000 police personnel were involved in the operation being carried out as part of an anti-drug campaign. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday set a deadline of three months to make the state drug-free. The operation led to the arrest of 290 drug smugglers after registration of 232 FIRs. Police recovered 8.14 kg heroin, 1.21 kg opium, 3.5 kg ganja, 19 kg poppy husk, 700 grams charas, 16,238 intoxicant tablets, injections and Rs 8.02 lakh cash.
The Punjab Police has already invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against the Khalistan sympathiser.
Dark, disturbing and full of gore, Fateh is gung-ho in its efforts to make this stylised action yarn as brutal as possible, observes Mayur Sanap.
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Joginerpal Jain on Thursday wrested the Moga assembly seat defeating his nearest Congress rival by 18,845 votes.
The Bharti Kisan Union (Krantikari) has criticized the Punjab government for issuing arrest warrants against 25 farmers and adding an attempt to murder charge in the FIR related to the 2022 prime minister security breach incident. The union claims the farmers were protesting peacefully and had no knowledge of the prime minister's route. They argue the government is acting under pressure from the central government.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted searches at four locations in Punjab on Friday as part of its probe in a terror-conspiracy case involving designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and the Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a banned organisation associated with him.
Pune FC's James Moga scored one of the quickest goals in the history of Indian football as his side held United Sikkim (USFC) to a 2-2 draw in a seventh round I-League match in Pune.
Inclement weather forced cancellation of Congress president Sonia Gandhi's scheduled rally at Moga today in the run up to the elections to the 117-member state assembly on January 30. Gandhi was scheduled to address rallies at Moga and Kapurthala on Thursday. Earlier, a Congress spokesman had stated that Gandhi's rally at Kapurthala had also been cancelled, but later said that due to improvement in weather, the party has decided to hold the Kapurthala rally.
A man allegedly involved in the gangrape of a 20-year-old woman in Mari Mustafa village was arrested in Moga even as raids were carried out on Friday to trace four other accused who are on the run.
The issue of the teen molested and thrown off a bus in Punjab and the demand for a HC in Telangana created a storm in Parliament
The father of the girl agreed to conducting of post-mortem and cremation of the body.
It is "absurd to think" that such a brutality will go unpunished due to ownership of the vehicle, says Punjab deputy CM
High Court on Thursday directed the state government to submit a report on the action taken against the bus staff in Moga molestation case.
Replying to a question, she said people voted for him with expectations that he would work for their welfare.
A fresh incident of alleged sacrilege was on Wednesday reported in the Moga district of Punjab, which was recently rocked by a series of protests over such cases.
Radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh has distanced himself from his mother's statement in which she had said that her son was not a Khalistani supporter, according to a statement issued by the Khadoor Sahib MP.
During his stay in the national capital, neither Singh nor his relatives or family members can make a statement in any form of media, according to the conditions laid down
The family of the teenage girl, who was killed after being molested and thrown off a moving bus belonging to the ruling Badal family in Punjab, has refused to cremate her till the administration fulfils their demands for compensation and cancellation of the transport firm's permit.
Radical Sikh preacher and Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh's brother Harpreet Singh has been apprehended by Jalandhar police in a drug case, a senior police official said on Friday.
NIA investigations in the case so far have revealed that the incidents in London on March 19 and 22 last year were part of a larger conspiracy to unleash vicious attacks on the Indian missions and its officials.
"Amritpal Singh came to the Rodewal Gurudwara on Saturday night. He himself informed the police about his presence and that he will surrender this morning at 7 am," claimed Singh Sahib Giani Jasbir Singh Rode of Rodewal Gurudwara in Moga, while speaking to ANI over phone.
Punjab Education Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra on Saturday triggered a controversy by making an insensitive comment that the death of the teenage girl, who was molested and thrown off a bus belonging to the ruling Badal family, was God's will.
Gangster Sukhdul Singh alias Sukha Duneke, one of Punjab's most wanted criminals, was killed in the Canadian city of Winnipeg by unidentified people, sources said on Thursday.
The Facebook page amassed a huge following, causing confusion among people, who assumed that Amritpal had taken over the organisation created by Deep Sidhu.
In Punjab, farmers sat on railway tracks at many locations in 22 districts, including Amritsar, Ludhiana, Tarn Taran, Hoshiarpur, Firozpur, Fazilka, Sangrur, Mansa, Moga and Bathinda. Because of the disruption of train services, passengers experienced inconvenience.
Amritpal Singh, the chief of the 'Waris Punjab De' outfit, who is lodged in Assam's Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act, has thrown his hat into the ring as an Independent.
Amritpal Singh was arrested by the Punjab police at around 6:45 am from village Rode after absconding for more than one month.
The locations raided by the NIA were spread across the districts of Moga, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Mohali and Patiala in Punjab and Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar in Haryana.
The curbs to be remained in Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Moga, Sangrur and Amritsar's Ajnala sub-division and a few areas in Mohali till Thursday noon.
Replying to a question, Amritpal's uncle said the family will go to Assam's Dibrugarh and meet him.
"What are her qualifications? She is just Sonu Sood's sister," Harjot Kamal said.
A team of three Union ministers will hold talks on Monday with a delegation of farmer leaders, who are planning to march towards Delhi to press for their demands.
As per the sources, the NIA is trying to ascertain if there are smuggling, trafficking, and radicalisation links.
Three days after a teenage girl was molested and pushed to her death from a moving bus in Punjab's Moga district, her relatives have refused to perform her final rites till the time the proprietors of the company that owned the vehicle are booked.
Amritpal managed to evade arrest for more than a month, which was proving to be a major embarrassment for the Punjab police that had launched a crackdown against the radical preacher and his aides on March 18.
According to the Morcha, the demands which Delhi Chalo has been called include: MSP should be guaranteed as per C2+50 percent formula and, as promised, a law should be made to guarantee it; all the farmers should be made debt free, and all agricultural loan must be waived.
As the year 2023 comes to an end, a look at some newsy events that shaped the world in the first half of the year.