Punjab DGP orders crackdown on drugs
Chandigarh, June 29: With the Congress government in Punjab drawing flak for being unable to curb the drugs menace, Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora on Friday issued strict directives to the field police officers to crack down on the activities of gangsters and drug smugglers.
The DGP told the police officers that they would be held accountable for any drug smuggling in their areas.
The directives were issued at a meeting of senior police officers at the Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur, around 150 km from here, on Friday.
The meeting was convened by the DGP to review the current security scenario, and the law and order situation in the state.
Issues relating to terrorist activities, radicalization of youth for anti-national activities, action against drug smugglers and gangsters were on top of the agenda.
"Reviewing the action by field units against drug smugglers, the DGP issued stringent instructions for all field officers to ensure that supply lines of drugs in their respective areas are completely plugged.
"Citing the Amarinder Singh-led government's zero tolerance policy toward drugs, the DGP warned against any complacency on the issue," a police spokesman said here.
He ordered all field officers to carry out systematic financial investigations into illegally acquired assets and properties by such smugglers and initiate the process of seizing them.
Amarinder Singh, before becoming chief minister in March last year, had taken a religious pledge to wipe out drugs from Punjab within four weeks of coming to power.
Questions are being raised on the government now as drug abuse continues unabated across Punjab, especially among youth and people in rural areas.
As per reports, 23 deaths linked to drug abuse have been reported from Punjab in June itself.
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BJP ally Tipra Motha announces rally to protest attacks on minorities in Bangladesh
Agartala (PTI): Tipra Motha chief Pradyot Debbarma said his party, an ally of the BJP, will organise a rally on September 26 to protest the attacks on minorities in Bangladesh.
Debbarma made the announcement on Saturday after the party's youth wing YTF gave a deputation to the Assistant High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Agartala, seeking the safety of minorities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
"This is not the first time that minorities, including Bengali Hindus and indigenous people, were attacked after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government in Bangladesh. Minorities were attacked in Noakhali and Comilla districts too. Maharaja Bir Chandra Library was set on fire and books that were 300 years old were gutted," he said.
Urging the Centre to take up the issue, Debbarma said the time has come to raise it at the United Nations.
"We will stage a massive rally to protest the attack on minorities in Bangladesh on September 26. Our youth organisation YTF will also join the rally to raise voice against the atrocities in the neighbouring country," he said.
Debbarma alleged that people of minority communities who have been living in Bangladesh for hundreds of years were being attacked in a systematic way so that their land could be grabbed.
Tipra Motha is a part of the BJP-led government in Tripura, which shares a border with Bangladesh.
