No order on wheat harvest by BSF, says Amritsar admn

Hours after rumours did the rounds in the area that the authorities had told the farmers in the border villages to harvest their standing wheat crop beyond the barbed wire in the next two days, the Amritsar district administration categorically stated that no such order had been issued by any of the authority.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Sakshi Sawhney stated that it was purely a rumour that the Border Security Force (BSF) had directed the harvesting of the wheat beyond the barbed wire within two days in border villages.

She stated that the BSF denied making any such announcement, and the DC confirmed this after speaking to senior BSF officials. The administration urged residents to disregard such baseless claims and verify information through official channels.

She said the citizens were advised to clarify any such news with the local authorities, such as patwaris, tehsildars, or district administration officials.

Meanwhile, Tarsem Singh, sarpanch of Rorawala village, while talking to mediapersons, stated that the instructions had been received to harvest the wheat crop swiftly. It triggered panic among villagers as people claimed that some religious shrines also made announcements on the public address system that farmers having land beyond fencing should cut the crop within the next two days.

Ferozepur: Amid heightened tension between the two countries, the BSF has denied making any announcement to the border farmers to expedite the process to harvest the wheat in their fields situated across the fencing within two days.

A BSF official said they might have been misconstrued by some persons regarding the message following the recent terror attack in Pahalgam, adding that they had just asked the farmers to complete the work before the intense heatwave.

Punjab