A steely war veteran from India, Ajit Ram sits in an open gas station booth past midnight, his pockets filled with cash and his only protection the hope that the surveillance camera behind him will scare off criminals. In February, the camera didn't stop two men from beating an attendant and emptying the cash register - it wasn't working. The owner fixed it after the killing two weeks ago of another employee at the Westampton filling station.

Lt. Governor John Garamendi of California USA, honoured Baba Ranjit Singh Ji (Dhadrianwale) and Giani Thakur Singh Ji (Damdami Taksal) based on the positive impact they are making on the community. He was mainly attracted by the number of community members influenced by the Parchaar done by these individuals. Baba Ranjit Singh Ji are currently on their 2008 three week Visit to California (U.S.A.) for Gurmat Parchaar.

A tunnel has been found in the Jahaz Haveli of Diwan Todar Mal here. The tunnel runs from ruins of the haveli to a well in fields nearby. SGPC president Avtar Singh said the tunnel was found recently and after taking the haveli from the Punjab Virasat Charitable Trust, barbed wire had been put around it. Pictures from a book were being matched with the haveli after which restoration would start, he added. SGPC members, scholars and persons associated with the restoration work would meet on May 23, said Avtar Singh.

he Punjab Virasat Chairtable Trust has donated Dewan Todar Mal’s Jahaz Haveli to the SGPC. The Dewan performed funeral rites of two younger Sahibzadas of 10th Sikh Master Guru Gobind Singh - Baba Zorawar Singh (9) and Baba Fateh Singh (7) - who were entombed alive by Mughal rulers of the time for not embracing Islam. Prof Kirpal Singh, former professor and Head of Punjab Historical Studies Department, Punjabi University, Patiala, who has been assigned by the SGPC to edit an important religious work on Sikhism, says in history there were references to two Todar Mals.

The samadh of Sher Singh (1807-1843), son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and ruler of Sikh state of joint Punjab, in Lahore has been vandalised beyond recognition. No trace is left of the samadh of his son Kanwar Pratap Singh. Its remains have been painted red and green to merge with the mosque nearby. Bobby Singh, director of the UK-based S.K. Foundation (dedicated to preserving the Sikh heritage), stated this after a tour of Pakistan to The Tribune here today.

Gurjant Singh shows the burnt wheat crop in his field at Gairi Butte village near Bathinda on Thursday.

Bathinda: Three persons were burnt alive and at least 10 injured due to fires that engulfed agricultural fields in 50 villages of the Malwa belt of Punjab today. The worst damage was in Muktsar where three persons lost their lives and four children received burns. The fire spread from the fields where the farmers had burnt dry straw of wheat crop. However, the fire intensified in these areas hit by a dust storm during the day. According to him as per rough estimate from 5000 to 10,000 acres was gutted and added on majority of the area harvest has already been completed.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said today that he would take up with the Prime Minister and the Home Minister the issue of restoring 60 per cent share of state employees in the administration of Chandigarh. Replying to a question, Badal said he had written recently to the UT administration against the repatriation of doctors, who were on deputation there, to Punjab. In due course the UT had set up its own cadre of employees, denying 60 per cent share to Punjab employees in various UT departments. At the time of declaration of Chandigarh as UT, Punjab was assured that 60 per cent employees in the UT administration would be from Punjab and 40 per cent from Haryana and there would be no UT cadre.

The ordinance on the use of Punjabi language in all government and semi-government offices and to introduce it as a compulsory subject in schools, is all set to be implemented in the state. If the statements issued by ministers are any indication, the state government will act tough (in the form of legal action) with officials, bureaucrats, employees etc if they fail to comply with the directive. For the preservation, promotion of Punjabi language and culture and to accord the language its due status in the country, this ordinance will be implemented soon in the state.

The Union government has sought 700 acres, free of cost, from the Punjab government for setting up world-class Central university at Amritsar. Union human resource minister Arjun Singh has written in this regard to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Badal today said Punjab would extend all help to the Union government for setting up the university. He would request the Union government to review its demand for 700 acres. He said for the university, 100-150 acres should be enough when technology was available to build 30/40-storey buildings easily.

The groundwater resource in Punjab is depleting at an alarming rate. Not only depletion, even the quality of water has suffered to a great extent due to its overexploitation. The fall in level of water table has been drastic from 8cm per year to 95 cm per year. The districts suffering from poor water quality include Bathinda, Sangrur, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar. Groundwater in these districts has high levels of salinity and fluoride content. Experts point that water guzzling paddy crop and spurt in the use of heavy-duty tubewells in the state are deepening the crisis. There are more than 11 lakh tubewells in the state (around 8 lakh electrical and 4 lakh diesel-operated).

You are probably wondering what "Bipran Ki Reet" is and what is has to do with Sikhism. Well, the answer is very simple. Bipran Ki Reet is a phrase which refers to the Principles of Brahmins or of the Hinduism. The phrase itself is derived from two words: "Bipar" meaning Brahmin and "Reet" meaning principle. Combined these two terms make Bipran Ki Reet which is used as a reference to a distancing from Sikh principles and some sort of following of mindless rituals.

Fresh evidence has emerged on the alleged murder of former Akal Takht Jathedar Gurdev Singh Kaonke inside a Jagraon police sation, with a serving Senior Superintendent of Police's "eye-witness account" in a new book. The SSP in a recoreded interview - reproduced by human right activist Ram Narayan Kumar in his book "Terror in Punjab: Narratives, Knowledge and Truth", scheduled for release on April 19 - disclosed how the Sikh priest was "tortured nearly to death" inside Sadar police station in his presence. And how sympathetic cops were humiliated by interrogators, including two senior Punjab Police officers with one of them now as SSP and another on deputation with the Union Government.

Luis Vázquez, 21, listens during his sentencing Friday as friends of the man he attacked speak. "I'm really, really sorry for what I put you through," Vázquez told the victim.

Judge Monica Benton sentenced Luis Vázquez, 21, of Kent, to nine months in jail and 240 hours of community service for the hate crime. He will be eligible for work-release during his time in jail, the judge said. Vázquez pleaded guilty last month to reckless endangerment, second-degree assault and malicious harassment, the state's name for a hate crime, for the Nov. 24 attack on Sukhvir Singh, an Indian-born member of the Sikh religious community. Singh said he did not want to see the young man's life ruined. "If someone has made a mistake, they should learn a lesson from it," Singh said. "They should be punished accordingly, and it should be known to society that it is not good to have hate toward any human being."

Muktsar: While environmentalists were observing the Earth Day today, a group of teachers held a corner meeting here and expressed concern over the future of environmental education in Punjab, with only 59 geography lecturers left in the plus II level schools run by the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB). Pointing out that there were only 162 posts of lecturer of geography across the existing 10,590 senior secondary schools in the state, the Geography Post-Graduate Teachers Union, Punjab, has expressed concern that 103 of these 162 posts are vacant.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT -  CHANDIGARH - Displaying great sense of propriety and courage, Institute of Sikh Studies (IOSS), Chandigarh withdrew and rescinded its controversial Press Release of April 3 on Dasam Bani where it had termed "Guru Gobind Singh Ji's Banis including Zafarnamah" as non-Gurbani. Some members of IOSS were up in arms against the manner in which the Press Release was issued at the behest of one Jasbir Singh Mann, a California based orthopaedic surgeon known for his blasphemous and anti-panthik views on Dasam Bani.

An eleven year old boy was attacked in a racist hate crime in Liverpool in full public view on a packed bus and not a single person bothered to help him. Far from it, onlookers watched on as the child was maliciously assaulted by having his turban ripped from his head and a tirade of racist abuse was hurled at him by a group of nine older caucasian youths.

Nearly 500 children wearing colourful turbans participated in the dastar-mini marathon organised here today by the Akal Purukh ki Fauj. D.P.S. Kharbanda, commissioner, Amritsar Municipal Corporation, flagged off the rally from Bhai Veer Singh Hall. It culminated at the Golden Temple after traversing Lawrence Road, Madan Mohan Malviya Road, Crystal Chowk, Hall Bazar and Town Hall.

Sikh representatives that organise the annual World Sikh Lobby today pledged that they were determined to make the recently established links with independent human rights experts at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva work to expose India’s human rights violations. The statement came after a meeting in Geneva with those representing the Special Rapporteur on human rights while countering terrorism. The meeting took place just before India’s human rights record came under its first-ever Universal Periodic Review (UPR) with the UNHRC.

In the last 4 weeks Sikhs from the UK, Canada, USA, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Netherlands that took part in the World Sikh Lobby in Geneva on 14 March have as promised continued dialogue with around ten UN Special Rapporteurs and Independent Experts. Apart from the successful meetings that took place that day there have been many written exchanges and talks.