New Delhi: An assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the Punjab Police has been shot dead in Tarn Taran, marking the fifth killing of a policeman in a border district of the state this year. Police said ASI Iqbal Singh (54) was shot dead Sunday at his native village, Naushehra Pannuan, while returning home from a gurudwara.
Posted in the Counter Intelligence wing of the police in the neighbouring Ferozepur district, Singh commuted daily between his workplace and native village on a bike. “He returned from the office and went to pray at the village gurudwara, never to return,” his sister Jaskaranjit Kaur told ThePrint.
Singh leaves behind two children based abroad, and a wife who lived with him in Naushehra Pannuan.
According to the preliminary assessment made by the Tarn Taran Police, two bike-borne assailants surrounded Singh on the Naushera Pannuan-Lohka Road around 7.30 pm, and shot him twice. He died on the spot.
“An incident was reported at the Naushehra Pannuan-Lohka road where an ASI posted at Makhu was attacked by two individuals, leading to his death due to two bullet injuries,” Ferozepur range Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Snehdeep Sharma said after inspecting the crime scene, along with Tarn Taran Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Surinder Lamba.
Gangster’s social media admission under lens
Shortly after the fatal attack, a social media post appeared where gangster Balwinder Singh alias Dony Bal and Prabh Dasuwal took responsibility for the killing. Senior police officers said all angles to the killing are being examined.
The angles, they said, include any possible connection to the killing of Iqbal Singh’s nephew, an accused in the 2022 RPG attack on the Sarhali police station. The accused, Ajmeet Singh, was killed in a similar fashion outside his home in Naushehra Pannua village last month when assailants encircled him and fired indiscriminately. Gangster Dony Bal had taken responsibility for that killing as well.
“All angles are being examined, including the posts that have appeared on social media after the killing,” a senior police officer told ThePrint.
Singh’s killing is the fifth fatal attack on Punjab policemen in the state’s border districts this year. Earlier this month, ASI Sukchain Singh had a narrow escape when he was fired upon at Ajnala in the Amritsar Rural police district. Another ASI, Harjit Singh, was shot dead in Amritsar city, while ASI Jaswant Singh was injured in a firing in Amritsar’s Majitha. In the same area, ASI Joga Singh was shot dead while on his way to his office. Earlier, two police personnel were shot dead at an outpost in a border village of Gurdaspur.
Edited by Sunanda Ranjan