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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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
