Illegal mining: Day after assault on cops, police raid Kot Sidhu village

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, January 10

A day after the assault on a police team by illegal sand miners, the Amritsar Rural Police launched a major crackdown on illegal sand miners in Kot Sidhu village here on Wednesday.

The crackdown led to the recovery of five more tippers from the village and arrest of around six more persons nominated in the FIR for illegal sand excavation.

The police had already arrested two suspects who had assaulted the cops at a checkpoint on Ram Tirath Road falling under the jurisdiction of the Kamboh police. They were identified as Kuldeep Singh of Shahpur and Harjit Singh of Kot Sidhu village.

The police had confiscated a tipper along with a Bolero vehicle carrying 800 cubic feet of illegal sand. They were booked on charges of murder bid (Section 307, IPC), assaulting and disrupting a government servant from discharging his duty (353 and 186 of the IPC) and criminal conspiracy (120-B, IPC).

Superintendent of Police Gurpartap Singh Sahota and DSP (Attari) Gurinderpal Singh Nagra informed that the police got a tip-off that several tippers laden with illegally excavated sand were coming going from the Ram Tirath side to Amritsar. A Bolero (PB-02-EE-3577) driven by Kuldeep and Harjit were guiding these tippers.

They said police teams immediately laid a naka on Ram Tirath Road. When the police team signalled the tippers to stop, they tried to run over the cops after breaking the barricades. The duo later started abusing the police team and assaulted them. They torn the uniforms of the cops and helped the tippers to flee the spot.

On Wednesday, police teams from the Lopoke, Bhindi Saida and Kamboh police stations surrounded the village and conducted raids in the village. During the raids, the police recovered five more tippers and nominated several other illegal sand miners whose names were withheld by police officials till their arrest. The operation continued till late evening.

Illegal sand mining in the Ravi belt and several other parts of rural areas has been going on unchecked. Teams of the Mining Department in the past found huge pits in the village hinting at large-scale illegal sand excavation. Whenever complaints were lodged by the Mining Department, police teams accompanied them to the spot and cases were registered against accused.