The incident came to light after the police found the bodies of three girls, aged between nine and four years, from a trunk from inside their parents’ house in the locality during its search.
In a shocking incident, a “poverty-stricken” migrant labourer and his wife killed their three minor daughters and stuffed their bodies in a trunk in their house in Muqsudan locality of Punjab’s Jalandhar district, police said on Monday.
The incident came to light after the police found the bodies of three girls, aged between nine and four years, from a trunk from inside their parents’ house in the locality during its search.
The couple had on Sunday reported to police that their daughters, namely, Amrita, 9, Sakshi, 7, and Kanchan, 4, were missing since morning.
Accused Couple filed missing complaint
The police said that the couple had informed police that their daughters who were playing in the locality’s street had not returned till 11 pm on Sunday.
However, when the police started investigating, searched the locality and talked to people, it was learnt that the girls were at home only since morning and had not come out.
Getting suspicious, the police also got to know from CCTV footage that nowhere were the girls seen outside in the locality and hence, the searched inside the house and found the girls’ bodies stuffed inside a trunk.
Farmers block railway tracks during a protest against central and state government, in Jalandhar on Thursday
About 600 trains were affected in Punjab and Haryana during the Punjab farmers’ three-day ‘rail roko’ protest which ended on Saturday evening.
The agitation that began on Thursday saw farmers demanding compensation for crops damaged in the recent floods, a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) and a sweeping debt waiver in all north Indian states from the government.
According to railway officials of the Ferozepur division, 376 passenger trains were cancelled, 89 were short terminated, 46 short originated, and 70 were diverted.
As a result, hundreds of rail passengers were left stranded in Punjab and Haryana.
Passengers at Ambala Cantt railway station told India Today TV that they now have to spend much more to book other transportation to get to their destination.
One passenger said that while his train journey was costing him Rs 800, he may have to spend Rs 14,000 if he decides to travel by taxi as his train was cancelled. Others expressed concerns about whether they would get a refund on their tickets.
Railway officer Naveen Kumar said that extra counters have been opened at Ambala Cantt station to provide refunds to passengers whose trains were cancelled.
He also said that efforts had been made to make sure trains had stopped at stations with amenities and ample transport services. When asked about the losses incurred due to the protests, Kumar said it could only be estimated after the agitation was over.
FARMERS’ 3-DAY PROTEST
The farmers had blockaded railway tracks at several places in Faridkot, Samrala, Moga, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Tarn Taran, Sangrur, Patiala, Ferozepur, Bathinda and Amritsar since Thursday as part of their three-day agitation.
Several farmer groups, including the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee; Bharti Kisan Union (Krantikari); Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Azaad); Azaad Kisan Committee, Doaba; Bharti Kisan Union (Behramke); Bharti Kisan Union (Shaheed Bhagat Singh) and the Bharti Kisan Union (Chottu Ram), had participated in the three-day protest.
Farmers’ bodies call three-day ‘rail roko’ in Punjab from September 28. (HT)
Several farmers’ bodies on Saturday announced a three-day rail blockade in Punjab from today, September 28, in support of their demands including a financial package for losses caused by the recent floods, a legal guarantee for MSP, and a debt waiver.
“If anyone tries to misbehave with the farmers of Punjab, then farmers from Haryana will also join Punjab farmers. Farmers are united throughout the country,” a farmer leader said.
“Rail roko will begin across Punjab for three days today. There are many issues including the MSP guarantee, and cases against farmers during Delhi protests not being taken back and other issues…Forget about farmers’ income being doubled, our expenses have risen 2-3 times…,” said Sarwan Singh Pandher, general secretary, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, Punjab.
#WATCH | Farmers in Punjab’s Amritsar led by Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee to stage ‘rail roko’ at noon today over their demands of compensation for flood-affected farmers and MSP guarantee among others
The decision was announced by Sarwan Singh Pandher, the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary, following a meeting of representatives of 19 farmers’ bodies, PTI reported.
Most of the farmers’ bodies participating in the protest are from Punjab. However, a few outfits from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan will also support the agitation.
Pandher said the farmers are demanding a financial package for flood-affected people in north India, a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for all crops, and debt waivers, among other issues, as per PTI reports.
He said the ‘rail roko’ will be held at 12 places in Punjab’s Moga, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Tarn Taran, Sangrur, Patiala, Ferozepur, Bathinda and Amritsar.
The farmers’ bodies supporting the protest include the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, Bharti Kisan Union, Bharti Kisan Union, Azaad Kisan Committee Doaba, Bharti Kisan Union, Bharti Kisan Union, Bharti Kisan Union, Kisan Mahapanchayat (Haryana), Pagri Sambhal Jatta (Haryana), Progressive Farmer Front (Uttar Pradesh), Bhoomi Bachao Muhim (Uttarakhand) and the Rashtriya Kisan Sangathan (Himachal Pradesh).
The NIA confiscated the property of banned SFJ outfit head Gurpatwant Singh Pannun under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, co-founder and legal adviser of the banned US-based Khalistani organisation Sikhs for Justice.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has confiscated the properties owned by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, head of the banned Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) outfit, in Chandigarh and Amritsar under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
A property confiscation notice pasted outside Pannun’s residence at sector 15 in Chandigarh reads, “1/4th share of house no. #2033 Sector 15-C, Chandigarh, owned by Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, a ‘proclaimed offender’ in NIA case RC- 19/2020/NIA/DLI, stands confiscated to the state under section 33(5) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 by orders of the NIA special court, SAS Nagar, Mohali, Punjab, Dated 14/09/2023. This is for information of general public.”
A similar notice was put up on the agricultural land belonging to Gurpatwant Singh Pannu in his ancestral village Khankot in Amritsar. The central probe agency has confiscated 46 kanal of agricultural land belonging to Pannu in the village in relation to a terror case registered in 2020.
Pannu’s father Mohinder Singh Pannu was a resident of Nathu Chak village of Patti sub-division in Tarn Taran before the partition. After the partition, the family shifted to Khankot village of Amritsar.
Krishan Dev, a farmer who runs a small dairy, said he came to know about his son’s fate only after his wife — after learning of the death — died by suicide on Thursday.
Narinder Devi and her son Gurvinder Nath. (Express File Photo)
On July 27, 2021, Gurvinder Nath left his home in Punjab to study in Canada. A little over two years to the day, the body of the 24-year-old was brought back to his village of Aima Chahal — where his distraught mother had died by suicide.
On Saturday, Gurvinder and his mother, Narinder Devi (50), were cremated together in the village in Punjab’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district.
Gurvinder was pursuing a business course at Toronto’s Loyalist College. He also worked delivering pizzas on the side. During a late night delivery on July 9 in Mississauga city, near Toronto, he was robbed of his car and brutally assaulted. He succumbed to his injuries at a hospital on July 14.
Back home, his brothers — one older than him and the other a twin — tried to keep the news from their parents, even disabling the internet on the phone of their father, Krishan Dev Nath.
Krishan Dev, a farmer who runs a small dairy, said he came to know about his son’s fate only after his wife — after learning of the death — died by suicide on Thursday.
“I have lost everything today,” said Krishan Dev. “My wife somehow felt that all was not well with Gurvinder and forced me five or six days ago to call him. When I couldn’t make a WhatsApp call, as my internet was not working, she got restless. She used to tell the other village women that if something happens to Gurvinder, she wouldn’t let him go alone.”
Then, on Wednesday, Narinder Devi finally found out. “While drying clothes in the verandah, she probably overheard from some passers-by that Gurvinder’s body was arriving. She became restless from then on but didn’t tell anyone in the home what she was going through.”
Gurvinder’s grandmother, 75-year-old Vidya Devi, said: “My daughter-in-law first attempted to electrocute herself but after we got to know, my grandsons Kamal and Balwinder did not let her be alone even for a minute. The next morning, Thursday, she was not home. We thought she had gone to the temple as usual. But she didn’t return for some time. My eldest grandson, Kamal, found her lying on the street just outside the house.”
Sukhjinder is among hundreds of Indians who were duped by a gang of smugglers
Like millions of others in India, Sukhjinder always dreamt of migrating to the US in search of a better life.
Now he shudders at the very idea.
“I have chills down my spine when I hear someone talk about going abroad. That one decision ruined everything for me,” said the 35-year-old, who goes by only one name.
A resident of Tarn Taran, a small town in Punjab, Mr Sukhjinder is among at least 150 young men and women in the northern Indian state who were duped by a gang which extorted huge sums of money in exchange for false promises of getting them settled in the US.
Police said the gang, which is entirely made up of Indians, would fly out its victims to new destinations such as Bali in Indonesia and hold them hostage for days to extract a ransom from their families.
They said they suspected the gang chose countries like Indonesia or Singapore as their base because of cheap flights and the “visa on arrival” facility available to Indian citizens in these countries. Besides Punjab, men in three other states – Haryana, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh – were also targeted, they added.
Last year, police said they had arrested “the gang leader” Sunny Kumar’s wife and his father and recovered 15m rupees ($1.82m; £1.47m) from their home in Punjab. So far, 11 people have been arrested in connection with the scam, they added.
But Kumar and other gang leaders are still absconding, believed to be hiding in Indonesia. Police say they are in touch with the Indian federal government to get their whereabouts. Those under arrest have not made any statements. The BBC has contacted the Indonesian police for comment and the story will be updated when they respond.
The gang, which has been active for over two years, mostly targeted young, but not very educated, people in Punjab.
“The members approached their victims with the promise of taking them to the US via Mexico,” Gursher Singh Sandhu, police commissioner of Mohali city, told the BBC.
“They would fly their clients out of the country and then force them to call their family and lie that they had reached safely, and ask their family to pay the gang’s fee,” he said.
Some members of the gang, based in Punjab, would then go and collect the money from the victims’ families. After that, the gang would either abandon the victims or put them on a return flight to India, Mr Sandhu added.
Police say they have arrested the main accused’s wife and his father
Mr Sukhjinder said he first got in touch with Sunny Kumar in October after a relative told him he could help him reach US.
Kumar told Mr Sukhjinder he would get him there if he paid 4.5m rupees. The plan was that Mr Sukhjinder would first travel to Bali, from where Kumar and his men would chart a route for him to get to Mexico and then to the US. Mr Sukhjinder said he trusted the offer because Kumar sent him a ticket to Bali without him making any advance payment.
On October 29, he boarded a flight for Bali from Delhi. From here on, things took a sinister turn.
Mr Sukhjinder alleged he was held hostage at an unknown location for 23 days. “I was beaten so severely that I had no option but to agree to lie to my family.”
He said he was allowed to take a flight back to India after his family paid 4m rupees to the agents.
This is not the first time Indians have taken desperate steps to migrate to the US.
Thousands of Indians dream of moving to foreign countries, especially the US, in the hope of a better life. Some even fall victim to human smugglers in their desire to reach their goal.
US government data shows that 19,883 Indians were arrested while entering the country illegally in 2020. The numbers went up to 30,662 in 2021 and to 63,927 in 2022.
Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh (Centre) evaded arrest and a massive manhunt was launched by the Punjab Police on Saturday. (Image: PTI/File)
The Punjab Police on Saturday said 78 people were arrested in a crackdown against Khalistani sympathiser and ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief Amritpal Singh and several members, including Singh, are on the run, and a “massive manhunt” has been launched to nab them.
In a bid to prevent the circulation of rumours and possible tension amid the ongoing operation, the Punjab government suspended internet services in the state till Sunday noon. The Ministry of Home Affairs is “closely monitoring” the situation in Punjab in the wake of renewed activities of some Khalistani supporters.
Jalandhar Police Commissioner said Amritpal Singh has been declared a fugitive. “His two cars have been seized and gunmen were nabbed. The legality of their weapons are being checked, he told ANI, adding further investigation is underway.
Here are the top updates on Amritpal Singh’s arrest in Punjab:
The Punjab Police launched a massive state-wide cordon and search operation (CASO) against elements of Waris Punjab De (WPD) against whom several criminal cases stand registered. “In this
operation, a total of 78 persons have been arrested so far, while several others have been detained for questioning,” an official release said.
After reports of a high-speed car chase comprising over 100 police vehicles in the afternoon, the police confirmed that seven close associates of Amritpal Singh were arrested after officials on the Shahkot-Malsian Road intercepted them.
The police also recovered weapons in the state-wide operation so far: nine weapons, a rifle of 315 bore, seven rifles of 12 bore, one revolver and 373 live cartridges of different caliber.
Police said ‘Waris Punjab De’ members are involved in four criminal cases relating to spreading disharmony among classes, attempt to murder, attack on police persons and creating obstructions in the lawful discharge of duties of public servants.
“All persons involved in criminal offences shall be dealt in accordance with law and all persons wanted by the police should offer themselves to the process of law. Their constitutional rights of legal defence shall be protected,” the police said.
Sources told News18 that ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief Amritpal Singh had asked his aides to stay armed and had formed a team called ‘Anandpur Khalsa Army'(AKF). The team would always stay around him with dangerous weapons, sources said.
Internet services have been suspended across the state till 12 noon Sunday. The police also asked people to maintain peace and harmony. “Request all citizens to maintain peace & harmony Punjab Police is working to maintain Law & Order. Request citizens not to panic or spread fake news or hate speech,” it said in a tweet.
A heavy deployment of police, RAF and paramilitary forces has been made near village Jallupur Khera in Amritsar, the native place of Amritpal Singh. Officials told PTI that the Union Home Ministry is “closely monitoring” the situation in Punjab in the wake of renewed activities of some Khalistani supporters.
What Amritpal’s Father Said After Raids: Amritpal Singh’s father, Tarsem Singh, told ANI that police did not find anything illegal in their house after conducting raids for around four hours. “We don’t have correct info about him (Amritpal Singh). Police conducted searches for 3-4 hours at our house. They didn’t find anything illegal…Police should have arrested him when he left from the house,” he said.
“All the citizens are requested not to pay heed to fake news and rumors. Situation in the state is completely stable. All persons indulging in mischievous activities for disturbing peace and harmony in the state shall be dealt with strictly,” the official statement read.
Some supporters of ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief shared some videos on social media claiming police were chasing them. A video showed Amritpal sitting in a vehicle and one of his aides could be heard saying policemen were after “Bhai saab” (Amritpal).
According to reports, Singh is believed to be a close associate of UK-based Khalistani terrorist Avtar Singh Khanda. Khanda is a trusted lieutenant of leader of the banned Babbar Khalsa International Paramjit Singh Pamma, who often holds theoretical training classes for the Sikh youth to radicalise them.
New Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Arvind Kejriwal said, has already “removed the security of old ministers and gave security to the public”.
“The party’s mantra is an MLA will roam among the people,” Arvind Kejriwal said.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has set targets for each minister in his cabinet and if that is not met, the people “can demand that the minister be removed,” Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today. Bhagwant Mann has “covered a lot of ground within just three days”, he said, pointing to the initial announcements by the new government.
Mr Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party won a massive mandate in Punjab in the recently concluded assembly elections and Mr Mann took oath as the Chief Minister earlier this week.
The new Chief Minister, Mr Kejriwal said, has already “removed the security of old ministers and gave security to the public”.
Compensation was given for wasted crops. “He also announced Anti-Corruption Action Line, after which the people in Delhi started getting calls… improvements have started on their own,” he added.
Will work together for Punjab’s growth and welfare of its people: PM Modi
Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann receives a bouquet from Governor Banwarilal Purohit after taking oath at Khatkar Kalan. Pradeep Tewari
AAP leader Bhagwant Mann was on Wednesday sworn in as the 28th Chief Minister of Punjab at a ceremony thronged by tens of thousands of people at martyr Bhagat Singh’s village here.
Promising to fight unemployment and corruption in the state, Mann said, “We will stall the flight of students to foreign lands for quality education and job security. We will reform our education system to suit innovations in the job sector.
“Ours is a long journey to usher in agriculture reforms, improve hospitals, transform the education system and end unemployment. The work will start from today itself. We will not waste even a single day. We are already late by 70 years.”
He was the only one to take the oath at the event where many people in the crowd and on the dais sported turbans and dupattas in yellow — the “Basanti” colour often associated with Bhagat Singh. Mann paid floral tributes at the Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh’s museum and memorial. The 48-year-old former comedian was administered the oath of secrecy and allegiance by Governor Banwarilal Purohit. Mann ended the oath that he took in Hindi with the slogan “Inquilab Zindabad”.
Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi at the CWC meeting in New Delhi on Sunday. (Image: News18)
The four-hour Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting concluded on Sunday with senior members requesting party president Sonia Gandhi to continue to lead from the front. The meeting was held to introspect the Congress’s crushing defeat in five states – Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur – leading to renewed demands from several quarters for a change in the party’s leadership.
One of the demands made at the meeting was more accessibility of Congress leaders, especially Rahul Gandhi, which has been one of the major complaints of party members. Another demand raised by senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad was fixing responsibilities. Azad, however, also made it clear that neither he nor any of the dissenting G-23 members are against the Gandhis.
According to sources, Sonia Gandhi, while addressing the meeting, said Gandhis are ready to step down and take responsibility for the election defeat. “I am often told that some of you feel we three are responsible for the state of affairs. If that is how you feel, then we three (Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka) are willing to sacrifice and step down,” she was quoted by sources as saying at the meeting.
