Punjab recorded 36 farm fires on Tuesday, taking the season total to 404 and past Madhya Pradesh, with Tarn Taran (198) and Amritsar (117) accounting for more than three quarters of all cases.
Punjab has logged 220 farm fires this season versus 208 at this point last year. Tarn Taran (95) and Amritsar (81) account for 80%, with 19 FIRs and Rs 3.35 lakh in fines so far.
The air quality commission has asked Amritsar and Tarn Taran officials to explain by 5 pm on October 21 why action should not follow, citing fire counts up 15% and 45% on last year.
BSF caught a Punjab Police constable with about 15 kg of heroin, valued near Rs 100 crore, at a Tarn Taran checkpoint; the NCB is questioning him and the BJP cited the case against the Mann government.
Punjab Police ASI Iqbal Singh, 55, was shot dead by motorcycle-borne assailants near Naushera Pannuan in Tarn Taran on Sunday evening, the fifth cop killed this year; police have named no suspect.
Two men were found dead in Pukhopur village near Chola Sahib in Tarn Taran district on Wednesday morning; Tarn Taran Police have named accused persons and say further investigation is underway.
Punjab Police arrested two youths near the border in Tarn Taran's Khem Karan area and recovered four hand grenades they say were drone-dropped from Pakistan for festive-season attacks.
Pakistan summoned India's chargé d'affaires in Islamabad on Saturday to protest the BSF killing of two men at the Tarn Taran border, calling them unarmed civilians and rejecting India's claim that it had foiled an infiltration bid.
The Border Security Force shot dead two suspected Pakistani intruders who crossed the International Border near the Rajoke border outpost in Tarn Taran around noon on Friday, after they ignored repeated warnings to stop.
