Tarn Taran, August 22
Four persons received injuries in a shootout between two political groups on the road leading to Bhikhiwind village, Chabbal, near here, today.The injured were identified as Raj Kumar Singh, Mangal Singh, Kamaljeet Singh and Rinka. All have been admitted in different private hospitals for medical aid where their condition was stated to be out of danger.

The accused also knocked down a motorcyclist identified as Aman Johal on the Attari road. He has been referred to a private hospital in Amritsar and is also stated to be on way to recovery.

Though no arrests have been made so far, the Chabbal police has registered a case under relevant sections of the IPC against the accused. They have been identified as brothers Aman Kumar, alias Sonu, and Manish Kumar, alias Monu, along with their two accomplices Baldev Singh and Sarwan Singh.

It was learnt that Aman Kumar and Manish Kumar ran a gun house in Chabbal. While confirming the incident, SHO Sukhdev Singh of Chhabal police station said Aman Kumar held the position of sarpanch in Chabbal village while Manish Kumar’s wife was the sarpanch of Cheema village.

The injured Raj Kumar and Rinka said as soon as they came out of the house of ex-sarpanch Hardiyal Singh, they were intercepted by the accused and after engaging in arguments, the accused shot at them indiscriminately from their .12-bore pistol.

The SHO said, besides this, shots were fired from a .32-bore rifle too.

“The accused were holding the arms in their names. Further investigation is on to nab them at the earliest,” he said.

Further investigations revealed that the two groups belong to the SAD but were from two different factions.

Amritsar, August 22
The police has busted a gang of snatchers and looters and arrested its four members in the city.The arrested persons have been identified as Mandeep Singh, alias Raju, resident of Khalsa Nagar, Bhai Manjh Singh Road, Sandeep Singh, alias Sajan, resident of Kot Harnam Dass, Satnam Singh, resident of near Gurdwara Toot Sahib, and Davinder Singh, alias Penta, resident of 396, Namdev Colony Sultanwind Road.

Four more gang members managed to dodge the police. They are Jujhar Singh, resident of Guru Nagar, Nikka, resident of Bhai Manjh Singh Road, Billa, resident of Bhai Manjh Singh Road, and Beera Nihang, resident of Kot Mit Singh, Amritsar.

The police has recovered a .12-bore country-made pistol from Sandeep Singh and .12-bore country-made pistol with two live cartridges from Davinder Singh.

A team of Kotwali police station, headed by SHO Gurjit Singh, had received a tip-off that a gang of eight persons was planning to attempt a robbery in the area. A raid was conducted near Galiara Park and four persons were arrested on the spot. However, their four accomplices managed to escape.

A case under sections 399 and 402 of the IPC and sections 25,54 and 59 of the Arms Act has been registered at E-Division police station. Meanwhile, two cases under the Arms Act have also been registered at Kotwali police station.

The police said during the search of Mandeep Singh and Satnam Singh, 100 gm narcotic powder was also recovered from each. Two separate cases under the NDPS Act was registered against them at Kotwali police station.

Phagwara, August 22
The town of Phagwara witnessed a political tug-of-war between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the parties’ respective attempts to claim credit for the approval of the stoppage of the Shatabdi Express train at Phagwara.

As the 2054DN Amritsar-Hardwar Jan Swaran Shatabdi Express train made its first halt at Phagwara railway station today, both the parties tried their utmost to encash the moment to the best of their interests.

After raising the issue in Parliament several times, Congress MP from Hoshiarpur Santosh Chaudhary succeeded in getting a brief halt of the Jan Shatabdi Express train running between Amritsar and Hardwar at Phagwara from August 22 for the facility of the residents of several towns, including Phagwara, Banga, Goraya, Nawanshahr, Noormahal, Hoshiarpur, Jandiala, Bilga and Apra.

However, a faction of the BJP, led by block BJP president Arun Khosla, attempted to hijack the reception programme of the train by Congress activists led by former minister Joginder Singh Maan and Harjit Singh Parmar.

As soon as the train halted at Phagwara at about 8.35 am today, a dozen BJP activists climbed on the engine of the train, tied a banner of the party and claimed credit for getting the stoppage sanctioned. They also raised slogans.

On the other hand, Santosh Chaudhary, who was travelling in the train from Jalandhar, came down from the train and was garlanded by dozens of Congress activists. Chaudhary also climbed on the engine cabin and flagged off the train from Phagwara.

Later a rally was organised in front of the station superintendent’s office, in which Congress leaders, including Maan, Ram Labhaya and Parmar thanked Chaudhary for ensuring the halt at Phagwara for the facility of pilgrims from the town.

Nawanshahr, August 22
The police nabbed two members of a looters’ gang, identified as Hardip Singh and Inderjit Singh of Kang village, while they were on a looting spree in the Rahon area of the district on Friday evening.

The miscreants had looted a petrol pump near Canal Colony, Rahon, a milkman and another person near Behloor Kalan village.

But as nakas had been put up at different places and SSP Narinder Bhargav patrolled to monitor the nakas during the night, police parties kept getting information about the incidents of looting by the miscreants, which consequently enabled them to plan a strategy to nab them.

The police recovered a .12-bore pistol, four live cartridges, cash, mobile phone, a cheque and a driving licence snatched by them from different places within two hours. A case under sections 392 and 34 of the IPC and 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act has been registered at Rahon police station.

Bhargav said at about 7.45 pm, information was received from Sunil Joshi of Rahon that two unidentified motorcycle-borne miscreants had looted Sunil Kumar, a salesman at a petrol pump situated near Canal Colony, Rahon.

The police got information that some miscreants had snatched a mobile phone from a milkman. Later information regarding snatching of Rs 1,300 from Ram Lubhaya near Behloor Kalan village was received.

The police recovered Rs 5,000, a blank cheque looted from the petrol pump, a .12-bore pistol and two live cartridges from Hardip Singh and a mobile phone, Rs 1,300 and two live cartridges from Inderjit Singh.

Nawanshahr, August 22
With the release of water from the Bhakhra Dam, the level of water has increased considerably in the Sutlej and so the panic among the residents of a number of villages, including Dhangerpur, Auliapur, Tajowal, Mandala, Mahaddipur, Shamashpur, Chakli Sujatpur, Ranewal, etc, falling in the vicinity of the Dhussi bundh along the Sutlej here in the district.

The news regarding the release of water from the Bhakhra Dam, floods in other parts of the country and the sensitive condition of the Dhussi bundh here have been giving them sleepless nights. The villagers can be seen visiting the Dhussi bundh to keep a watch on the increasing flow of water. As the river water has started touching the Dhussi bundh, they have become extremely apprehensive about the safety of their paddy crop, cattle and above all their lives.

Satnam Singh, Sewa Singh and Manak Singh of Tajowal village, Ram Pal of Mandala village, Gurdeep Singh of Ranewal village and Sat Pal of Chakli Sujatpur village, who had come to take stock of the rising water level in the river at the Dhussi bundh along the Sutlej in the bet area falling in the district, expressed resentment over the apathetic attitude of the district administration towards the security of their lives and crops.

They said that no concrete steps had been taken to strengthen the sensitive points on the Dhussi bundh. The Drainage Department had started repair work of a revetment at Tajowal a few days ago but that too was lying incomplete. “Now, the danger of the floods is looming large and the district administration has neither undertaken any work to strengthen the sensitive points of the Dhussi bundh, nor made any arrangements of sand bags and man power to plug the breach if there is any to save the villages from the fury of floods,” lamented the villagers.

They said only an SDO and a junior engineer of the Drainage Department were sitting here and just watching the flowing water in the river. There was hardly any arrangement to tackle any emergency.

Balwinder Singh and A.P. Punj, SDO and junior engineer, respectively, of the Drainage Department, who were present at the Dhussi bundh, however, said there was no need to be panicky as presently 35,000 cusec water was released, while the capacity of the Sutlej was 2 lakh cusec of water. The district had received Rs 12 lakh for carrying repair work of the revetment at Tajowal complex. The work was started a few days ago and due to increase in the water level, the work had to be suspended, said the officials.

But when asked about the arrangements made by them to tackle any eventuality, they claimed that all arrangements had been completed and in case of any eventuality, the whole district administration would accompany the Drainage Department in thwarting the danger of floods. But they could not divulge any detail of the arrangements made by them and how the villages could be saved from the fury of the flood in case of any breach in the Dhussi bundh without any arrangement of sand bags and manpower at the site.