Bathinda, August 6
With the arrest of seven radical Sikhs, Bathinda police foiled a ‘well-planned’ bid to add fuel to the Dera-Sikh row. Reliable sources informed that the accused had planned to kill the manager of Dera Salabatpura, the state headquarters of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect. Meanwhile, they had chalked out a plan to open fire at a bus of Dera followers, which plies from Bhagta to Salabatpura.

The accused have been named as Gurlal Singh of Bhai Rupa, Gurpreet Singh of Bhagta Bhai Ka, Manjeet Singh of Bhagta Bhaika, Jagsir Singh of Tungwali, Satnam Singh of Gurudwara Bhai Dyalaji of Dialpura, Kulveer Singh of Maur and Bhola Singh of Phul. The accused are said to be in the age group of 30-40 years.

Sources informed that among the seven arrested there was one more who could not be arrested. It has also come to notice that all the accused were baptised Sikhs and some of them had close relationships with separatists.

It has been informed that they had practiced to ensure the operation gets executed in a fool-proof way. They had formed parties to make the operation successful.

As per their plan, one of the accused Manjeet Singh, who was a watchman in village Bhagta Bhai Ka, was assigned the duty to inform about the departure time of the bus, which carries Dera followers to Salabatpura. Further, there were two parties for opening fire at the commuters in the bus.

On July 19, Manjeet had informed about the movement of the bus and four of the accused on two motorcycles left for the mission but midway, one of the motorcycles stopped due to fuel problem, so they missed the target.

Meanwhile, they had planned to kill Dera manager Zora Singh but they had never seen him. They knew only about his timing and about his identity, they were told that he wore the symbolic locket of the Dera around his neck. During police interrogation, they accepted that once they were ready to kill him but as they were not able to identify him, the operation failed.

It was by chance that when police was searching for anti-Dera activists to ensure the peaceful bhog ceremony of a Dera follower, Lily Kumar of Mansa, that they were nabbed with weapons.

Police recovered three 12 bore rifles, one 12 bore pistol and one .315 bore rifle along with around 32 cartridges from their possession.

Confirming the facts, SSP Bathinda Ashish Chaudhary said, “The accused are in police remand as we are hopeful of getting more facts through their statements, which would help in solving many other cases.”

Bathinda, August 6
Police today nabbed all the four persons who allegedly made a bid to collect ‘goonda tax’ from the owner of a local sweet shop. The accused, however, reportedly opened fire in the air to escape the police net.

According to Bobby Kapoor, owner of the Kapoor Sweet House, located opposite the Public Library, the miscreants entered his shop at 12.45 pm and asked him to hand over Rs 50,000 in cash. When he refused to ‘comply with their order,’ one of them pointed a revolver at him.

At that time, only one staff of and two customers were present at the shop, he said, adding, “They were demanding ‘goonda tax.’ They then reminded me of a mobile call, which I received about four days back. In that call, one unidentified person claiming him to be Rajinder Singh of Mati Dass Nagar, had demanded the ‘goonda tax’. The person had said that they needed money to get one of their accomplices out on bail, in fire case.”

“I just ignored that call but one of them today claimed to be that Rajinder Singh, pointed revolver at me and asked whether I am frightened or not. Meanwhile, some neighbours assembled outside the shop and the miscreants fled away in their golden colour Zen, the registration number of which was not visible,” Bobby said.

Later, kin of the shopkeeper reached and chased the miscreants on two motor cycles. On the way, one of them called up SHO Kotwali police station, GS Romana, who kept him online and rushed towards the location of the miscreants.

Unconfirmed sources said the miscreants opened fire in the air at Mati Dass Nagar, when the police gheraoed them. Finding trapped from every side, the miscreants put down the revolver and police managed to nab them.

After the incident, the official cell phone of SHO GS Romana was found switched, however, sources said the accused included Rajveer Singh, Rajinder Singh, Bikram Singh and Manpinder Singh.

When contacted, the SP (D) Ajay Maluja said, “We have arrested all the four accused. During preliminary investigation, it came to light that one of the accused Rajinder Singh was to recover some Satta (lottery) prize from Bobby Kapoor. When he along with others visited Bobby, he showed weapon but finding mob assembling there, they all skipped.”

Till filing the report, police was in process to register case against them.

Police sources said that the main accused, Rajinder Singh, had alos been named accused in several crimes related to murder and attempt to murder.

Bathinda, August 6
City residents faced inconvenience today as all public sector banks remained closed on account of a two-day nationwide strike by the bank employees. The first day of the strike roughly affected clearing transactions worth over Rs 200 crore as no clearing took place. Even as private sector banks were open, their work was also affected due to inter-dependent nature of banks’ functioning.

“We have to deposit cash on a daily basis as it was risky to keep it. Strikes make things very inconvenient for us. The bank employees should not raise their demands by putting the public to inconvenience,” Ramesh Jindal, a businessman, said.

According to an estimate, almost 50,000 to 80,000 transactions pertaining to clearing take place in the city on any given day, which amounts to about Rs 100 crore.

Customers said such strikes created an adverse impact on the credibility of public sector banks and expressed disappointment over some private banks also joining the strike. “Why should customers suffer? Even after privatisation, we preferred to continue with public sector banks as they have nominal service charges. Private banks, on the other hand, impose heavy charges. With bank employees going on strike, where should people go,” Reeta Mittal asked.

On a call given by the United Forum of Bank Unions, the bank employees observed a two-day strike under the banner of the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) in front of the Union Bank of India on the Mall Road here today.

Their demands included wage revision, one more option for pension scheme, implementation of compassionate appointment scheme as per bilateral discussions between the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and the United Forum of Bank Unions, stopping outsourcing and starting recruitment to fill up vacant posts, besides no mergers and acquisitions in public sector banks and no dilution in the ceiling of voting rights.

Addressing a protest rally, Pawan Jindal, convener, United Forum of Bank Unions, Bathinda unit, said the employees had been forced to resort to a strike as despite raising the demands several times, no action had been taken.

The union leaders threatened to intensify the struggle the government did not act on their demands.

Bathinda, August 6
Mystery shrouds the burning of eight Birs of Guru Granth Sahib, placed at a Gurudwara in village Multania, in the wee hours today.

According to sources, the Birs were kept in a room on the first floor of the Gurudwara. The Granthi (priest) of the gurudwara witnessed smoke coming from the room at around 3 am today. He immediately shouted for help which was responded to by the villagers. An announcement was also made from the Gurudwara loudspeaker.

However, it took minutes to douse the flames.

The sarpanch of the village, Major Singh, said that it was the first such incident in the Gurudwara.

He added that Balwant Singh Nandgarh, Jathedar of Takht Damdama Sahib, Talwandi Sabo, had been informed about the incident and he sent Five Piaras to the spot to look into the matter.

It is learnt that due to loadshedding, there was no power supply when the incident took place and there was no one present in the room.

Villagers said that the room, where the Birs were kept, was not locked and as a precautionary measure, neither an incense stick nor a ‘Jyot’ was lit. SHO Sadar police station, Pirthi Pal Singh, recorded the statements of villagers and the priest of the Gurudwara.

Bathinda, August 6
The health department today challaned 11 persons for violating the Tobacco Control Act, 2003. According to the information available, a team of health officials led by Dr Dharampal Singh Sekhon, district health officer, caught 11 persons for smoking cigarettes at public place near bus stand and the railway station. The offenders were charged with a penalty of Rs 1,500 and were issued a warning against committing the offence again.

Sekhon said the drive would continue against violators of the Act, including users and providers of tobacco products.

Emphasising on the need for sensitising people against smoking and use of other tobacco products, the DHO said: “The teams will randomly visit urban and rural areas to create on-the-spot awareness.”

Abohar, August 6
Poonam Chand Golchha, a veteran social and religious worker, who had been on fast for the last ten days, breathed his last on Thursday morning.

Hundreds of followers of the Jain religion arrived here from distant places in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan and participated in the funeral procession. His body was placed on a flower bedecked vehicle. Consumer Movement chairman Sat Pal Khariwal said Golchha had devoted the last three decades of his life purely to the welfare activities. — OC