Amritsar:

A blast occurred at a police station in Punjab’s Amritsar in the early hours of Tuesday, triggering panic in the area. Officials said no one was injured in the “attack”.

The incident comes a fortnight after a hand grenade was lobbed at a police post in Nawanshahr.

An explosion was heard at the Islamabad police station around 3.15 am, according to locals.

Initially, the Amritsar Police claimed that no blast occurred on the police station premises. However, in an official statement in the evening, the Punjab Police said “in the wake of the attack” on the Islamabad police station, Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav visited the city and ordered strict action against the perpetrators.

Yadav visited Amritsar a few hours after the incident was reported, according to the statement.

Chairing a high-level meeting here, the DGP emphasised the need for officers to use both technical and human intelligence to detect and apprehend those responsible for the “attack”.

“All the previous cases of attacks on police establishments, including the IED implant at the Ajnala police station and the hand grenade attack at police post Asron, in Nawanshahr, have been solved successfully and those responsible have been arrested,” he said.

Yadav asked the officers to identify common trends and patterns and conduct investigations in a scientific manner, utilising all technical and forensic tools for the detection of crimes to ensure the convictions of accused persons.

The meeting was attended by Commissioner of Police (CP) Amritsar Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Ferozepur Range, Ranjit Singh Dhillon, DIG Border Range Satinder Singh and SSP, Amritsar Rural, Charanjit Singh.

Earlier in the day, Amritsar Police Commissioner Bhullar denied reports of the blast.

He said that a policeman posted on sentry duty heard the sound around 3:15 am. “He immediately went out but found nothing. He definitely heard the sound. All police officers immediately reached the spot,” Bhullar said.

Pawan Kumar (55), who lives near the police station, said, “A loud noise was heard around 3.15 am which created panic in the area. Residents rushed outside to see what happened.” Meanwhile, DGP Yadav also reviewed the law-and-order situation in the border districts and took stock of progress achieved in previous cases of attacks on police establishments.

In a separate meeting, the DGP addressed all superintendents of police, deputy superintendents of police and station house officers of border districts, including the Commissionerate Police Amritsar, Amritsar Rural, Batala and Tarn Taran, to brief them about the top priorities of the Punjab Police.

He directed the officers to intensify the fight against terrorism, organised crime, drug trafficking and street crimes. He also asked them to tackle such crimes professionally and ensure the prompt registration of FIRs in such cases.

The DGP also encouraged police officers to act promptly on tips received via the newly launched Safe Punjab Anti-Drug Helpline ‘9779100200’. This helpline allows citizens to report drug traffickers anonymously.

Later, DGP Yadav also visited Jalandhar and held a similar meeting with senior officers, including Jalandhar CP Swapan Sharma, Jalandhar Range DIG Naveen Singla, Jalandhar Rural SSP Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh, Hoshiarpur SSP Surendra Lamba, Kapurthala SSP Gaurav Toora and other gazetted officers and SHOs of the Jalandhar Commissionerate and Jalandhar Range to review the law-and-order situation.

The DGP also participated in a brainstorming session organised for the officers in which crime solutions adopted by various police stations were discussed.

During the session, the model adopted by the Aur police station in district SBS Nagar to combat drug trafficking at the point of sale by utilising public cooperation was discussed.

The DGP applauded the various crime solution techniques being used by different districts to arrest persons involved in heinous offences.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Narain Singh Chaura, the man who allegedly has links to the Khalistani terrorist group Babbar Khalsa, was arrested for opening fire at former Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal this morning. He tried to attack Mr Badal while he was serving his penance at the entrance of the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Sukhbir Singh Badal escaped unhurt as Chaura was overpowered by people present on the spot.

The incident occurred around 9 am shortly after Mr Badal, who was in a wheelchair, had taken the ‘sewadar’s’ place at the gate of the Golden Temple.

Visuals from the spot show Chaura slowly approaching the gate and then taking a gun out of his pocket. A man standing near Mr Badal quickly spotted him and held his hands.

#WATCH | Punjab: Bullets fired at Golden Temple premises in Amritsar where SAD leaders, including party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, are offering ‘seva’ under the religious punishments pronounced for them by Sri Akal Takht Sahib, on 2nd December.

Details awaited. pic.twitter.com/CFQaoiqLkx

— ANI (@ANI) December 4, 2024

The gun goes off but narrowly misses Mr Badal and others near him and hits the wall.

Who Is Narain Singh Chaura

Narain Singh Chaura is a resident of a village called Chaura in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, some 60 kilometres from Golden Temple.

He was born on April 4, 1956, to Chanam Singh and Gurnam Kaur.

According to sources in the security establishment, Chaura is associated with the banned pro-Khalistan group Babbar Khalsa or Babbar Khalsa International.

The 68-year-old is also considered the mastermind of Chandigarh’s 2004 Burail jailbreak case in which four inmates escaped prison after digging a 104-foot tunnel. These four prisoners were Babbar Khalsa chief Jagtar Singh Hawara, former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassins Paramjit Singh Bheora and Jagtar Singh Tara and a murder convict Devi Singh.

Chaura was arrested in 2013 in a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He was released on bail five years later.

Sukhbir Singh Badal Serving Punishment At Golden Temple

Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday started his penance by serving the religious punishment given to him by the highest temporal body of Sikhs in a sacrilege case.

The Akali Dal chief sat in a wheelchair at the entrance of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, wearing a plaque around his neck and holding a spear, visuals showed.

Mr Badal has been sentenced by the Akal Takht to perform as a ‘sewadar’ and given clean duty in the kitchen and toilet at several gurdwaras, including the Golden Temple, for favouring Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the 2015 sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib.

Chandigarh:

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema on Friday said an investigation by the state Tax Department’s Enforcement Wing has uncovered fake billing scams worth thousands of crore.

Two firms dealing in gold were found to have generated fake bills of Rs 860 crore, while 303 firms dealing in iron were involved in fake billings of Rs 4,044 crore.

Additionally, 68 firms were found to have engaged in fake billing of Rs 533 crore after getting their firms registered in others’ names.

Cheema said on inspection of a firm dealing in gold in Amritsar, the enforcement wing found that fake bills of Rs 336 crore were made for the sale and purchase of gold.

He said the registration of the two firms from which the firm had shown that it purchased the gold had been cancelled, and these firms further had no record of purchasing any gold.

Referring to the Ludhiana-based firm which did similar manipulation in gold transactions, the minister said gold sale-purchase was made against fake bills of Rs 424 crore by it.

He said that in this case as well, the registration of the two firms from which the firm has shown purchases of gold had been cancelled. These firms further had no record of purchasing any gold.

Giving information about the fake sale-purchase of iron of Rs 4,044 crore by 303 firms, Cheema said 11 firms out of them are registered with Punjab, 86 firms with other states, and 206 firms with the Central government.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The BJP on Saturday named its candidates for 11 more Lok Sabha constituencies, fielding a number of leaders who joined it from different parties recently such as Bhartruhari Mahtab, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Sushil Kumar Rinku and Preneet Kaur.

All these leaders have been fielded from the seats they represent in the outgoing Lok Sabha, while former Indian ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu will be making his poll debut from Amritsar.

Hans Raj Hans, who had won from North West Delhi in 2019 on a BJP ticket, will contest from the Faridkot seat, which is reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs).

Veteran parliamentarian Mahtab, who quit the BJD recently, will contest from Cuttack, Bittu from Ludhiana, Kaur from Patiala, and Rinku from Jalandhar, a seat reserved for SCs.

Both Bittu, the grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, and Kaur, the wife of former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, were in the Congress before joining the BJP, while Rinku was in the Aam Aadmi Party.

The BJP on Sunday named two candidates from West Bengal, three from Odisha and six from Punjab.

It has so far announced its candidates for 411 seats. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Dehradun, Uttarakhand:

The central government has approved the flight operations from Dehradun to three major cities of the country – Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, Varanasi and Punjab’s Amritsar, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said today.

The chief minister further said that all three services will be launched on March 6, Wednesday.

Chief Minister Dhami expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia for the approval of all three services.

According to the chief minister’s office, on the inauguration day, a plane will take off from Dehradun for Ayodhya at 9:40 am and reach Ayodhya at 11:30 am.

“On the same day, a flight will take off from Ayodhya at 12:15 pm and reach Dehradun at 1:55 pm,” it added.

Another flight will take off from Amritsar at noon and reach Dehradun at 01:10 pm.

“Similarly, the flight from Dehradun will take off for Amritsar at 1:35 pm and will reach Amritsar at 2: 45 pm,” the CMO added.

Air service to Varanasi via Pantnagar is also starting on March 6.

“The passenger plane will take off from Dehradun for Pantnagar at 9:50 am and reach Pantnagar at 10:35 am. Similarly, a flight will take off from Pantnagar to Varanasi at 11:15 am and land in Varanasi at 1 pm. The flight from Varanasi will take off for Pantnagar at 1.40 pm and reach Pantnagar at 3:25 pm. The flight will take off from Pantnagar at 3:50 pm and reach Dehradun at 4:35 pm,” the CMO said.

According to the CM’s office, Dhami had been trying for a long time to start air services for all three places.

“Before the Pran Pratishtah ceremony of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya, the CM had personally requested and written a letter to Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia,” it said.

Dehradun Airport is a medium-sized airport in India with domestic flights only. On the other hand, Ayodhya recently got its first airport, which has been named Maharishi Valmiki International Airport. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the airport on December 30 last year.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)