Bathinda, July 25
Security has been stepped up in the city and its adjoining areas following the Bangalore serial blasts which rocked the Silicon city on Friday afternoon.

Police force has been deployed at important places in the city, including bus stand, railway station, commercial establishments and other places, instil confidence among citizens. Police personnel, launching intensive search and anti-sabotage exercise at the bus stand, searched the luggage of passengers. The police team also conducted search operations inside the buses.

Security at the railway station was also beefed up.

Sources in the railway said that teams of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Government Railway Police (GRP) also carried out search at railway platforms and parking areas.

Sources in the administration said the police had been put on alert and had been instructed to keep strict vigil in the district.

Moga, July 25
The highest temporal authority of the Sikhs, Akal Takht, has decided to take up the issue of seeking justice for the families of the victims of 1984 anti-Sikhs riots.

Akal Takht jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti said that he would address the affected family members at Moga on Saturday to discuss their problems on an open platform.

This is for the first time that a jathedar of the Akal Takht has come out openly to address the family members of riot victims and discuss their problems, ever since the riots took place across the country after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

President of the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF), Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad, had recently approached the jathedar of the Akal Takht to address a gathering of the affected families, listen to their problems and chalk out a strategy to take up the matter at the highest level.

While talking to The Tribune, Peer Mohammad, said that more than 10,000 cases of riot victims, for financial aid and other facilities, were pending before the union and state governments. They were still awaiting red cards to be issued to them, which make them eligible for the aid, he said. In Punjab alone, more than Rs 400 crore was pending with the state government to be granted to the victims for the past five years, he added.

Peer Mohammad said that 197 persons, including 16 leaders of the Congress and 14 senior police officials, had already been identified and pointed out in various reports as guilty of instigating the riots, but they all were moving freely and had not been punished so far.

Meanwhile, he announced to carry out a protest rally outside the CBI court hearing the criminal cases of anti-Sikh riots at New Delhi on August 26. He alleged that the court was dilly-dallying in recording the statement of Jasbir Singh, an eyewitness, against senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler.

Another eyewitness, Giani Surinder Singh, had already recorded his statement against Tytler, he said. He said that Jasbir Singh was presently living in the US and he should be called for recording his statement, as he was willing to do so. The federation leader was of the view that as per the international laws, Jasbir Singh, could record his statement in any court of the US, the report of which could be summoned by the CBI court for acceptance as legal statement of the witness. 

Bathinda, July 25
To lodge a protest against the alleged inconvenience being faced while pursuing the course, students of elementary teachers training (ETT) in the district today boycotted the classes at the district institute of education and training (DIET) in village Deon.

Addressing the protesters, member of the state ETT committee, Kuljeet Singh said that the government and the director, secondary council of education research and training (SCERT) had made no arrangements to conduct the examination for students who could not appear in the third semester due to shortage of lectures.

Speaking over the issue, Balkar Singh, district president of the Diet Students Welfare Association, Punjab, alleged that the ETT session was from August 2006-08 but due to the alleged malpractice of the government and the director, SCERT, the session had been stretched.

Kuldeep Singh, president, DIET, Deon, said that the course was to start in August but it was started in December 2006, due to which a number of students who had left the course in between, had been facing problems in completing the course within the maximum period of five years.

The protesters alleged that the fourth semester of the course was going to be over but the result of the third semester were yet to be announced.

They further warned the authorities concerned to fulfill their demands, failing which the students would intensify their struggle.

Bathinda, July 25
The Maur police station had to register a case of abduction on Thursday against one Viskha Singh, a resident of Ghuman Kalan village, on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Sukhdev Singh, a resident of Chandigarh, filed a case in the court in  2004 for the registration of a case against Viskha Singh for abducting his daughter Nishu, who  was then a major.

The girl was reportedly kidnapped from Ghuman Kalan village.

The Maur police station registered a case against the accused under section 364 of the Indian Penal Code. No arrests have been made so far. It is important to mention here that the whereabouts of the girl are still unknown.

ASI Tarlochan Singh, investigating officer, assured that the action would be taken in this case.

Bathinda, July 25
The police got a three-day remand of a man, arrested on the charges of abducting a married woman.

Vijay Kumar, a resident of Navi Basti, registered a complaint before the police that Abid Hussain alias Samir kidnapped his wife on the intervening night of June 30 and July 1.

The police registered an FIR against Abid Hussain under sections 363 and 366 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on July 24. The accused was arrested today and produced before the court. He was then sent to police custody till July 28.

ASI Gurjit Singh said that the whereabouts of Vijay’s wife were still unknown and the accused hadn’t revealed anything till yet.

Bathinda, July 25
In a train accident on Friday morning, a man lost both his legs.

According to sources, Narinder Kumar, a resident of Prajapat Colony, who used to work as a vegetable seller, was crossing the track when the accident happened.

He was immediately taken to the civil hospital by the Sahara Jan Seva volunteers.

Barnala, July 25
With the arrest of three persons, the local police claims to have busted an inter-state gang involved in stealing cars. As many as seven cars worth Rs 18 lakh have been recovered from their possession. The gang had been operating in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan and used to sell the stolen cars using fake documents.

Shive Kumar Verma, SSP Barnala, said that the CIA staff, Barnala, received a tip- off on Wednesday that Kushwinder Singh, a member of the above said gang, was coming from Mansa to Barnala side. A police team, led by DSP Baljit Singh, set up a check-post at Pakhon Kalan village. Khushwinder and Sikander Singh were arrested and an Ikon car and an Alto were recovered from their possession.

Interrogation of the accused led to the recovery of a Santro car from Jarnail Singh and an Alto car from Sukhdev Singh, a resident of Lohgarh village.

The SSP said Ramandeep, a local resident, was arrested today. A Maruti car was recovered from his possession. Kushwinder made another confession leading to the recovery of an Indigo car and an Alto car.

Abohar, July 25
Shilpa Sharma, wife of the slain contractor Bunty Swami (35), has named one Jaswinder "Rockey" as a prime suspect in the shootout that rocked the town late on Thursday night. Bunty was returning to the town after finishing the day's work on his two-wheeler when he received two shots in his head and mouth near the Burjmuhar village terminal on Fazilka-Abohar road (NH-10) between 8.30 - 9 pm.

The assailants fled from the scene after committing the crime. Some persons shifted Bunty to the Nehru Memorial Civil Hospital here as he was bleeding profusely. But he succumbed to his injuries few minutes later, police sources said.

As per the information, Bunty, originally a resident of Ludhiana, had developed enmity with a former contractor, Jaswinder "Rockey", on the day he signed a contract with the management of a ghee factory located near Khippanwali village, about 20 km from here.

Bunty had mailed a dozen complaints to the district police alleging that Rockey threatened him of dire consequences for reaching the contract. SSP Dinesh Partap Singh had referred the complaints to the sub-divisional authorities at Fazilka but they could not locate Rockey and revealed that he had been declared a proclaimed offender (PO) in another criminal case.

The SSP along with DSP Parampal Singh and city police SHO Jagrup Singh inspected the spot where the crime was committed. They also visited the ghee factory in the village to collect information about the movements of the prime suspect and his possible accomplices. 

Abohar, July 25
Responding to a call given by the state struggle committee, the Technical Services Union (TSU) here organised a protest rally in the PSEB sub-division No. 1 on Friday to express resentment over the arrest of workers who were on their way to show black flags to the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at Kapurthala yesterday.