India Bars Sikhs from Visiting Nanakana Sahib; Akal Takht Website for Flood Relief

A 12 Sep Indian Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) advisory has barred Sikhs from visiting Pakistan for the upcoming Prakash Purab (Birth Anniversary) of the first Sikh sovereign Guru Nanak in November. The advisory cited security concerns and tensions with Pakistan following the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor (vermilion mark). Ironically, the restriction came two days before the resumption of sporting ties between India and Pakistan. On 14 Sep, India played Pakistan in Dubai, in the Asia Cup T-20 cricket tournament. The reason for cricket is India's Home Minister's son Jay Shah is the president of International Cricket Council and there is money to be made from cricket while allowing pilgrims to visit or re-opening Kartarpur Corridor—closed since April—is not in the union government's interest. Aam Aadmi Party’s Panjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann publicly criticized the advisory at a press conference in Chandigarh, accused the union government of 'double standards', and highlighted policy inconsistencies between religious and sporting exchanges with Pakistan. Giani Harpreet Singh of the parallel Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) said, 'Pilgrims went when the Indo-Pak wars in 1965 and 1971 took place, but now it is banned.' Sukhbir Singh Badal, chief of SAD said the ban hurts the religious sentiments of Sikhs. Indian National Congress Member of Legislative Assembly Pargat Singh called the ban unjust. Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes 'the right to religion...manifest it through teaching, practice, worship, and observance.' Article 25 of the Indian Constitution guarantees 'the fundamental right to freedom of conscience and the free profession, practice, and propagation of religion.' Meanwhile, the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee has earmarked USD 2.2M for flood relief, 800K litres diesel to farmers to clear their fields and seeds to small farmers. Sri Akal Takht Sahib (Eternal Throne) presided over a meeting of all individuals and organizations involved in flood relief and announced a website sarkarekhalsa.org to coordinate relief efforts. Organizations and individuals are encouraged to register on the website (earlier coverage).

On 12 Sep, a court in Tarn Taran district sentenced Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Khadoor Sahib, Manjinder Singh Lalpura to four years imprisonment in a case of molestation and assault of a woman in 2013. Following the conviction, the MLA and seven others were taken into custody on 10 Sep. Lalpura and others assaulted the complainant Dalit (marginalized caste, name withheld) woman on 3 Mar 2013. The incident took place when the complainant along with her family members came to a marriage venue for a wedding function. At that time, Lalpura was a taxi driver. The Supreme Court of India had taken suo motu cognisance of the case, directing paramilitary force protection for the sufferer and her cousin Jagjit Singh, an eyewitness, and her family members. The sufferer said she had to fight a long and difficult battle against the accused but is now satisfied with the verdict. Lalpura was seen as a rising star in the ruling party. In May, he was appointed AAP Majha (north Panjab) zone vice-president. Meanwhile, after the floods, to help the poor, the Panjab government is setting up a Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) House Project. For this purpose, 6,035 acres of panchayat (common) land have been identified in 62 villages in 12 districts of Panjab. Out of this, the Housing and Urban Development Department has initially selected 13 sites in 12 panchayats of three districts, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (SAS Nagar), Jalandhar, and Amritsar. However, it will not be easy for the Panjab government to acquire land from the panchayats. The District Commissioner (DC) affixed rate of the lands of the villages of SAS Nagar district, based on which the district-level price fixation committees must fix the price, is very low. The market price of the lands of these villages is ten to fifteen times more than the DC rate. How much the panchayats will be ready to give land, will be known only if the panchayats agree to the government proposal (earlier coverage).

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of USD 181M flood relief package for Panjab during his visit to Gurdaspur 9 Sep has sparked sharp reactions from farmers, who have questioned its adequacy and purpose. Sarwan Singh Pandher, coordinator of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha asked, 'Is the USD 181M for agriculture, infrastructure, or housing? Will it be over and above the state’s package, or merged into it?' The PM relief was accompanied with a Press Information Bureau (PIB) statement that the relief was ‘in addition to the USD 1.36B already in the state’s kitty’. The Opposition has questioned the Panjab government over these State Disaster Relief Funds (SDRF) ‘lying unspent’. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said, 'The government is sitting on such a huge amount of money, which could have been used to give relief to the people.' Punjab Pradesh (state) Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring alleged the state government diverted the funds for other uses, leaving flood-affected victims in utter despair. Panjab Bharatiya Janata Party chief Sunil Jakhar shared a state Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report from 2024 suggesting Panjab’s disaster relief fund had USD 1.02B as on 31 Mar 2023. Panjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said the union government had not paid Panjab a 'single penny' for disaster management or mitigation. On 12 Sep when chief secretary Kumar Anugraha Prasad Sinha said the SDRF amount did exist in the state’s account, but 'it cannot be used at the drop of a hat'. The chief secretary clarified, 'But we cannot use this money immediately as we act like bankers for this money. It is like an entry in a passbook, where the money is reflecting that it exists in the account, but it cannot be withdrawn all at once.' It is a pity that when Panjab is facing such a huge disaster, its government has not managed its accounts (earlier coverage).

After facing devastating floods, the Panjab Government has issued a directive to the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), urging it to stop random fluctuations in water outflows from the Bhakra and Pong dams. On the Panjab government owned Ranjit Sagar Dam (RSD) on river Ravi, the state blames the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for wrong predictions. Krishan Kumar, principal secretary, Water Resources, argued that the planning of water release depends on the weather forecast provided by IMD. 'Unprecedented rainfall, which was not predicted by the IMD, occurred in the RSD catchment, especially in the districts of Chamba and Kangra in Himachal Pradesh, and Kathua and Samba districts in Jammu and Kashmir, on 24-26 Aug. On 26 Aug, river Ravi recorded a flow of 1,411K cusecs, with unregulated tributaries, drains, and rivulets making up 85% of it. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has launched a cleanliness drive vowing to make affected villages silt-free by 24 Sep. Estimated to cost USD 11.3M, the exercise was initiated after the government issued Standard Operating Procedures for the removal of silt from fields. The government has placed heavy machinery at all the District Commissioner’s disposal. The government has allowed farmers to clear their land and sell the silt deposited by rivers without obtaining a permit till 31 Dec. However, farmers say the sale would hardly earn them USD 22 per trolley due to its inferior quality. Mann also said repair work at public places would be completed by 15 Oct. He added that the government would set up medical camps in all 2,303 flood-affected villages. Concurrently, farmer union Bharati Kisan Union (BKU, Ekta Ugrahan) has formed five zones to reach out to flood-affected people and provide them with various kinds of aid, including ration, green fodder, medicines, and clothes, apart from preparing a strategy to support the farmers in wheat sowing. BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan said 5K tractors will be sent to desilt the fields, which will also help in paddy harvesting and preparing fields for wheat sowing (earlier coverage).

The Panjab floods have killed 55 people, inundated 474K acres destroying about 35% of total cropland, and affected 2,303 villages. The floods hit when basmati was ready to be harvested in a few days and paddy too was almost near harvest. The huge deposit of sand on fields makes sowing wheat impossible. Panjab is the largest supplier of rice and wheat to India's food security program, which provides subsidised grain to more than 800M people. Meanwhile, Prasanna Boddupalli, Managing Director of the Borlaug Institute for South Asia, said work was underway to develop climate-resilient hybrid varieties of maize in collaboration with Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana. He said flood-tolerant maize varieties are being tested. Dr Satbir Singh Gosal, Vice-Chancellor, PAU opines the recent floods in the state have done more than submerged fields—they’ve transformed them. Red sand and silt carried by floodwaters from the Himalayan foothills have settled across vast stretches of farmland, mixing with Panjab’s native soil and raising urgent questions about fertility, nutrient balance, and the viability of future crops. While these are the directions corporate agriculture will take, farmers also have an alternative in natural farming. On 1 Sep, while villages in Ferozepur district were inundated, Sohangarh Farmvaristy was dry. Kamaljeet Singh Hayer who has created the natural farm says, ‘After the 1970s, we have extracted the fertility of the soil, enhanced productivity through artificial means. That has made the land dry and hard. Water does not percolate.’ Similarly, Iqbal Singh Sandhu who runs Guru Nanak Kudarti Kheti (Natural Farming) Mission, Sangrur says, ‘Overuse of heavy tractors and other machinery have created a hard slab between 8-18 inches under the surface of the soil. This slab stops water from percolating down. Unless we break the hard slab by digging up to 30-36 inches, the water will keep standing unless drained away but won’t soak into the ground.’ While restarting agriculture, farmers who can afford it, now have a choice to follow the failed Green Revolution model or experiment with natural farming.

On 9 Sep, a Sikh woman (name witheld) in her 20s was allegedly raped by two men in broad daylight at a park on Tame Road, in Oldbury, UK. During the assault, she was told to 'go back to your country'. Police said they were treating the assault as a racially aggravated hate crime and have launched a manhunt for the suspects. Both attackers are white—one is heavy-built with a shaven head and was wearing a dark sweatshirt and gloves; the other was seen in a grey top with a silver zip. Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Preet Kaur Gill condemned the attack, calling it 'an act of extreme violence and racism.' She said, 'She (the sufferer) does belong here. Racism and misogyny have no place in Oldbury or anywhere in Britain.' Gurinder Singh Josan, Labour MP for Smethwick said, ‘This is a truly horrific attack and my thoughts are with the victim.’ Dabinderjit Singh, the lead executive for political engagement at the Sikh Federation (UK), said the attack took place in ‘broad daylight on a busy road.’ A second sexual assault was also reported later the same day, in Kenrick Park, West Bromwich. Meanwhile, on 13 Sep, more than 110K far right protested against immigration in London. 26 police officers were wounded as they tried to keep the protestors away from a group of 5K rival demonstrators gathered at White Hall in central London. Concurrently, in the US, on 8 Sep, Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old Panjabi grandmother who has lived in California’s East Bay for more than three decades was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE asked Harjit to report to their office in San Francisco to submit paperwork. However, she was held and transferred to the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield. Harjit migrated from India to the US in 1992 as a single mother of two sons. She has been under ICE supervision since her asylum claim was denied in 2012. On 19 Sep, an estimated 200 people gathered at the El Sobrante Sikh Gurdwara to demand her release (earlier coverage).

On 9 Sep, in Hoshiarpur, parents found the corpse of their 5-year-old child Harbir Singh in the cremation ground. Harbir had been abducted the previous day when he was playing outside his home. Post-mortem revealed Harbir had been sodomized and smothered to death. Police identified the suspect as a migrant laborer, Manke Yadav, a native of Uttar Pradesh, who lived in the Sabzi Mandi area and described him as an alcoholic. The victim's family and various organizations took out a protest march and demanded the accused should be given the harshest punishment. The protesters also asked the police to launch a special campaign to identify all migrant laborers and residents of other states living in the city and arrest the criminal elements. Over the last week, some village (councils) have said they would not issue residence certificates to migrants in their villages. Immigration to Panjab by people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar started with the Green Revolution in the 1970s. Panjabi land owners needed labor to plant and harvest paddy and wheat. As agriculture mechanized, the agrarian need reduced, but labor—both seasonal and permanent—kept migrating to Panjab finding jobs in industry. Over the last few decades, migrants have brought their families, they buy land or home and settle down in Panjab. Political parties in power are quick to register migrants, give them identity cards to enrol them as eligible voters. Indian National Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira has raised the issue for the last two years and again urged the Panjab Assembly to consider his private member bill seeking a law to stop non-Panjabi’s from becoming permanent residents of Panjab. Khaira cites rules in neighboring state Himachal Pradesh which do not allow outsiders to own lands or become voters. There is an acute labor shortage in Panjab, migrants are needed, but some checks are mandatory like they are in place when Panjabi migrants go to other countries or live in other states in India. (earlier coverage).

On 10 Sep, Sandeep Singh alias Sunny, an inmate at the Patiala Central Jail attacked three fellow convicts who are convicted policemen. Sandeep is an undertrial in the murder of Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri who was killed in Amritsar in November 2022. The policemen are Deputy Superintendent Police Gurbachan Singh, retired Inspector Suba Singh, and dismissed Inspector Inderjit Singh. Gurbachan and Suba were both on life imprisonment in different extrajudicial killing cases. Gurbachan was convicted in Jul 2024 for cases dating 1992. Suba was convicted in Aug 2025 for cases dating 1993. Inderjeet was arrested in 2017 after a Panjab police Special Task Force seized drugs and a huge cache of arms and ammunition from him. While all three policemen are in the Intensive Care Unit, Suba has received grave injuries on his skull and face and doctors performed craniotomy on him. He is alive, but brain dead. Suba’s family has disowned him and not taken his charge. There is speculation about whether the attack was with a rod, a kada (iron bracelet) or sharpened cutlery. Neither have Sandeep’s lawyers met their client, nor have the jail authorities questioned him as they await more security. Meanwhile on 12 Sep, in village Jeeda, Bathinda, father Jagtar Singh and son 19-year-old Gurpreet Singh were seriously injured in explosions at their home. The explosions were linked to picric acid—a highly explosive, yellow-colored compound—which Gurpreet had ordered online. Police said no traces of shrapnel or severe incendiary were found at the explosion site during the preliminary probe. 'Windowpanes of the entire house were smashed by the impact of the blasts. The household items in the room, where the explosive powder was kept before the blasts, were damaged,' said an official. Sleuths from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) rushed to the village to ascertain any links with terrorists. On the basis of mobile phone records, the IB claims it found Gurpreet to be a follower of Pakistan-based Azhar Masood, head of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terrorist outfit (earlier coverage).

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered the permanent closure and demolition of the Malbros International distillery in the village Mansurwal Kalan, Zira, Ferozepur. This was possible through the sustained protest by 40 villagers in the area over the distillery's water, air, and land pollution. The protest started on 24 Jul 2022. The Public Action Committee took the case to the NGT. The Zira distillery is owned by Shiromani Akali Dal former Member of Legislative Assembly Deep Malhotra. As the protest grew, Aam Aadmi Party’s Member of Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) Balbir Singh Seechewal gave a clean chit to the water samples from the distillery. He was later found to be wrong. Shielding Malhotra, the Panjab government tried to evict protesters, even arrested them, but people insisted on correct water samples being collected. The PAC statement says, ‘Test reports by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and independent committees confirmed what the people had been saying—that Malbros had polluted the groundwater and harmed public health. On the strength of this evidence, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), and the Punjab government finally refused the company consent to operate.’ On 18 Jan 2023, the Panjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann announced closure of the distillery but did not pass orders in the last 2.5 years. The closure of the distillery is a huge victory for the villagers and environmentalists. However, PAC warns, ‘Malbros is now trying to restart its second unit—an ethanol plant in the same premises. The community is determined to stop any such restart.’ Meanwhile, taking suo motu cognizance of a media report on uranium contamination of Panjab's drinking water sources, the NGT has issued notices to PPCB, Department of Water Supply and Sanitation, Department of Health and Family Welfare, and CPCB. NGT observed that the matter raises issues of violation of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 (earlier coverage).

Across Panjab’s flood-hit districts, thousands of women are the unseen volunteers ferrying medicines to marooned hamlets, setting up kitchens in trolleys, and working shoulder to shoulder with men to hold the flood at bay. They are also the hygiene warriors. Harpuneet Kaur, a law student at Panjab University says, 'We formed a small team, raised everything through donations from Chandigarh and Mohali, and took relief to the Ramdas–Ajnala belt. Sanitary pads are the most basic need. Many families didn’t even have undergarments. This is causing Urinary Tract Infections. Women with severe period pain are unable to manage without hot water or home care. Because of waterlogging, fungal infections, and allergies are common.' Mansa-based kabaddi player Pittu Kotra started 'with just a bag of clothes' and was soon leading a convoy of volunteers, taking medicines by boat to homes cut off in Sultanpur Lodhi. 'We cannot give up. Panjab lives in the heart, we must come together,' she says. Actor Zainab Rajput Sai’s team distributed essential items, wading through chest-deep water without life jackets. 'Many times, boats have no diesel or drivers,' she says. ‘From the administration, even basic safety gear hasn’t reached us.' Meanwhile, data compiled by education officials shows 3,856 government schools were affected across Panjab for which USD 23M is required for repair and restoration works. Harsh Goyal, teacher at Government Primary School, Datt Road in Moga, said, 'A flood is not just a natural disaster. It leaves behind countless stories, pain and deep lasting wounds. It impacts the minds of children. When floodwater starts receding and life starts returning to normalcy, school becomes a place where children reunite. This reunion is not merely physical; it is also an opportunity to listen to stories they have withheld in their hearts. The faces of children returning to school are often marked by odd silence and sadness. As they sit on the benches, their focus is not on the book, as their minds replay horrific images of the floods.' Panjab’s society needs to extend its empathy to these children growing up with the trauma of floods.