Sunday morning, in some parts of Punjab, newspaper deliveries were delayed after post Punjab Police conducted vehicle checks, particularly commercial transports, during the intervening night of Saturday-Sunday. Police explained that they were checking vehicles transporting various goods because they had received an intelligence input and were acting on it. However, the opposition parties took a dig at the ruling AAP government, slamming it for checking the newspaper delivery vehicles and termed it as an โattack on the mediaโ.
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โRaids on newspaper delivery vans across Punjab are a chilling attack on press freedom,โ Leader of Opposition and Congress veteran Partap Singh Bajwa alleged in a post on X, which added, โThe media that built AAP Punjab is now being hounded by it โ just as Modi targets voices that question him. Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann are walking the same path as Modi. Both have no faith in democracy or the Constitution that defines India.โ
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Punjab BJP Working President Ashwani Sharma termed it โan undeclared Emergency by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in Punjabโ, claiming that panicked by the Sheesh Mahal 2.0 news, the AAP government attacked the media.
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“This morning, police stopped newspaper vehicles to search the bundles โ took vehicles to police stations at several places. The bundles were allowed to proceed only after reading the newspapers inside them. For the first time in Punjab’s history since the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi, an attempt was made to throttle and intimidate the media,โ Ashwani added.
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Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said, โThe raids on newspaper delivery vehicles across Punjab raise serious questions about press freedom and public safety. AAP Punjab, what’s the truth behind these actions? We demand clarity and transparency on this issue.โ
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Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Chief Sukhbir Singh Badal claimed the government targeted vehicles carrying newspapers โbecause they do not want anyone writing against themโ.
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โPeople of Punjab are not going to tolerate thisโฆ We stand with the freedom of the press,โ Badal said.
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Statement of the Police –
A Punjab Police statement quoting a police spokesperson said the vehicle checks were conducted under the supervision of gazetted officers at selected points in a streamlined and orderly manner without causing any inconvenience to the public. The spokesperson added that Punjab, a sensitive border state, has been โfacing the brunt of the designs of Pakistan’s ISI to bleed India by waging a proxy warโ through smuggling of contraband, arms, and explosives from across the international border using rogue drones and further transporting them using various types of vehicles.
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โAnti-national forces have been innovative in changing their modus operandi, and their activities have increased in intensity and efforts after Operation Sindoor. Due diligence and care would be exercised by Punjab Police to ensure that minimum inconvenience is caused to the public during the conduct of security checks, especially vehicle checks,โ the spokesperson added.
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โAt the same time, the need for an active and energetic internal security grid cannot be overemphasised in the present internal security scenario.โ
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Chandigarh Press Club also strongly condemned this, saying, โthe police action of stopping vehicles carrying newspapers in various districts of Punjab. In several instances, newspaper delivery vehicles were reportedly taken to police stations, leading to undue harassment of the delivery staff and delays in newspaper distribution.โ
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“Reports have been received from districts including Gurdaspur, Patiala, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, and others, where newspaper distribution was either delayed or completely halted. Such actions are seen as an attack on press freedom and an attempt to control the free flow of information through state machinery. The Chandigarh Press Club urges the Punjab government to immediately intervene, ensure the unhindered distribution of newspapers, and uphold the fundamental right to freedom of the press,โ the statement then added.