Amritsar

Tempers ran high among residents of Pathankot and Sujanpur against a youth arrested on charge of rape of a five-year-old girl from Sujanpur town, even as some of them even tried to beat him at the civil hospital as well as outside the district courts on Friday.

The tension between India and Pakistan following the deaths of Sarabjit Singh and Sanaullah was palpable during the retreat ceremony at the joint Attari-Wagah border check post on Thursday evening with BSF jawans and Pakistan Rangers exchanging angry glances and stomping their feet more aggressively than before. VIDEO INSIDE

Blaming the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the murder of Youth Congress leader Sukhraj Singh Bhugupur near Patti and the attack on Guru Harsahai MLA Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday claimed that these attacks were "deliberate and planned attempts" by the ruling party to browbeat the oppposition party into submission and win the May 19 zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has expressed concern over the latest suspected hate crime in which 82-year old Piara Singh was attacked while coming out of a gurdwara in the US city of Fresno in California.

Even as tension prevailed in Patti town on Thursday in the wake of murder of Punjab Youth Congress leader Sukhraj Singh, police claimed they had arrested one of the five accused.

The family of Sarabjit Singh, the convict who died after being attacked in jail in Pakistan, is sad at the death of Pakistani national Sanaullah Haq in similar circumstances. HT reports.

Even though Pakistan has issued an advisory to its citizens to exercise due caution and care while in India after the Sarabjit-Sanaullah attacks, but the Pakistani nationals seem having no issues and feel totally safe in India.

Punjab Congress leader and former MLA Jasbir Singh Dimpa on Wednesday accused state election commissioner SS Brar of "bias" and "acting at the behest of the state government" to ensure that maximum candidates of the ruling SAD-BJP alliance got elected unopposed in the zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections, the nominations for which ended on Tuesday.

A total of 84 candidates have filed nomination for 23 zones of zila parishad whereas 672 persons have submitted their papers for seats in 11 block samitis in the district.

New Gurdaspur SSP Sukhwant Singh Gill on Wednesday assured that he would do his best to ensure law and order in the district and sought public cooperation on this front. He also said that he would curb corruption, starting from his own police department.

There seems to be no end to the menace of stubble burning in district. It became all the more worse on Tuesday as a pall of smoke engulfed the National Highway 1 (Amritsar-Attari road), putting motorists at risk.

Bharatiya Janata Party state vice-president Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina has termed the proposed Food Security Bill of the Congress-led UPA as an "election stunt with eye on parliamentary polls".

The rural police have booked one Sarwan Singh, a resident of Meharbanpura village, on charges of raping a 17-year-old girl. A case has been registered against the accused under Section 376 of the IPC at Jandiala police station on the complaint of the victim's mother, Ninder Kaur, a resident of Meharbanpura.

The Damdami Taksal on Monday stuck to its stand that it had done nothing wrong in mentioning its former head Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's name above the entrance to the 'Operation Bluestar' memorial as well on a board in the 'parikrama' near the Akal Takht in the Golden Temple complex.