Looking back 2023: Snatchings, robberies remain bane of holy city
PK Jaiswar
Amritsar, December 27
Like past several years, snatchings and robberies have remained a bane of the holy city with the Police Department having miserably failed to curb such instances in the rural as well as the urban areas.
With easy availability of arms, snatchers have become so ferocious that they hardly think twice before assaulting or shooting any person.
Two women die in snatching bids
The year 2023 witnessed two incidents wherein two victims, both women, lost their lives during snatching bids. Such incidents have certainly proved lethal for women, traders and collection agents of financial firms who collect instalments in villages.
Ganga Maya, a resident of Sikkim, suffered serious head injuries when she was pulled out of an auto-rickshaw by two bike-borne snatchers while she and her friend were returning after witnessing the flag lowering ceremony on the Attari-Wagah Joint Check Post in February this year. Ganga died on way to a hospital.
Similarly, Mandeep Kaur, mother of an eight-year-old son, died after she fell from a bike when three snatchers pulled her purse last month. A resident of Khadoor Sahib in Tarn Taran, she, her husband and son were going to Muradpur village in Dhanoe Khurd when the incident happened. She was riding pillion on the bike.
Accountant shot dead at Ram Nagar Colony
In May this year, an accountant identified as Saurabh Sodhi, was shot dead at his house in Ram Nagar Colony located in the Islamabad area in a robbery incident. Four assailants came on a scooter and a bike. They barged into Sodhi’s house and sprayed bullets on him. A bullet hit Sodhi in the chest. He was immediately rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Micro finance company’s employee robbed of Rs 1.2L
A micro finance company’s field officer Jagdeep Singh, a resident of Moga, was shot at by two bike-borne persons in July. He was robbed of Rs 1.2 lakh by the armed looters. September month alone witnessed six such cases in which armed robbers looted finance firm employees.
Rs 10L looted from medicine shop in Katra Sher Singh
Five armed miscreants looted Rs 10 lakh from a medicine shop in the busy Katra Sher Singh area on gunpoint last month. Another chemist shop was looted in the Vallah area in September.
Several cases of carjacking, especially on the Amritsar highway and in a posh locality of the Ranjit Avenue area were also reported this year.
