Mohali/Chandigarh/Amritsar: An i20 and a Baleno trailed the Scorpio as it rolled through a crowded, noisy crossing in Banga town of Punjab on a bright Monday afternoon. The men in the Scorpio were headed to a shop, hoping to sell the SUV. They never got the chance.
In a flash, the doors of the i20 flew open. Three gunmen spilled out and unleashed a hail of bullets. Another attacked with a sharp weapon. At least 40 rounds were fired in the middle of the street, in full public view.
Harpreet Singh alias Honey Bal collapsed in the driver’s seat, unconscious, as his body coped with 11 bullets. Another passenger, Rimple, took a bullet to the head. He didn’t survive. Three others were wounded; they have been discharged from hospitals since.
Bystanders stood frozen while the shooting ended just as abruptly as it began. The Baleno, which had watched the ambush unfold, quietly drove away—as if a shadow vehicle, waiting to step in if men in the i20 failed to finish the job.
Now in the intensive care unit of a private hospital, Honey, in his 30s, lies motionless. Tubes snake from his body into humming machines. Beside the bed stand his brother Pawandeep and their father, Malkir Singh. Their vigil has not ended for weeks.
The family is unwilling to give its location, lest the attackers return. “We have sold all our cars to pay for his (Honey’s) treatment. Please don’t tell anyone he is here. They will come back to finish the job,” Pawandeep said quietly.
The 17 November shooting in Banga was brazen even for Punjab, where gun violence isn’t uncommon. Etched in public memory is the killing of popular Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moosewala in Mansa in mid-2022.
But what stunned investigators in Honey’s case was the profile of the suspected gunman: Ajay Ralh.
Ralh, police said, casually walked up to the Scorpio in an orange jacket and fired indiscriminately. Investigators later found out that he was out on bail in an extortion case and possessed a licensed pistol.
Also Read: Punjab’s deadly new phase of criminal violence — ‘fusion of gangs with terrorism’
A month of mayhem
The Banga attack is only part of a wave of violence that has stricken Punjab.
In rural Amritsar alone, between 15 November and 15 December, there were 10 incidents of shootings allegedly linked to organised crime syndicates, official data accessed by ThePrint showed.
Residents say killings and shootings have become more frequent. These include incidents involving some high-profile targets—kabaddi promoter Kanwar Digvijay Singh alias Rana Balachauria, for instance. Balachauria was shot dead in Mohali on 15 December.
Preceding that, the son of an RSS leader was killed in Ferozepur on 15 November; a Congress leader’s mobile phone store was struck in Batala on 21 November; a man facing multiple criminal cases was gunned down in the parking lot of a court in Fazilka on 11 December; and an assistant in charge of a private transport service run by a BJP leader was shot dead near Amritsar’s inter-state bus terminus on 18 November.
The fear economy
Sitting outside his house in rural Amritsar, 55-year-old shopkeeper Gurpratap Singh said he has a licensed pistol that he carries everywhere. “The state is in a dire state. There is complete lawlessness,” he said.
Most shootings are inevitably linked to networks of gangs that make extortion calls to amass money. Families who get such calls, and those who have lost loved ones, are often too afraid to name the killers or speak of the motives, fearing they too could be targeted. Members of gangs are so deeply embedded in the state’s social fabric that they know who has bought news cars, when non-resident Indians return homes, which weddings are scheduled, and what are the expenses involved.
A 60-year-old man, plucking peas in his field in Amritsar, told ThePrint his nephew received an extortion call demanding that he give Rs 40 lakh in three days. “My nephew came to a family wedding in his new car. Someone must have seen it there. Now, he has got an extortion call,” the farmer, who refused to be named, said.
Lakhwinder Singh, who runs a car-wash shop in Italy, had a more harrowing time.
He was visiting his family in Amritsar’s Dhulka in late-October when he got a message from a Portugal-based number demanding that he give Rs 50 lakh. He ignored it.
“That night, two men on a motorcycle came and fire multiple rounds at our house. We didn’t realise it at the time because it was around Diwali. We saw the damage the next morning,” he said.
The demands continued on calls and text messages, and Lakhwinder kept refusing to pay up.
On 16 November, Lakhwinder’s father Manjit Singh (66) was at his grocery store in the village when two men on a motorcycle opened fire, killing him on the spot. He got more calls soon after.
“I asked them why they are calling now. They told me I will be next,” he said.
The family has been granted security cover for now, but Lakhwinder and other members of the family, including children, are too afraid to step out of the house, even to go to school.
Iqbal Singh Lalpura, a retired IPS officer who served as chairman of India’s National Commission for Minorities and is associated with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab, said a wide gap has emerged between the police and the public.
“Police are expected to be impartial, approachable and people-friendly, but they have lost the trust and everyday contact of the common citizen. People are scared to even complain. They think that police are partners of gangs and drug networks,” Lalpura said.
‘Youth love fukra baazi’
Senior police officers from multiple districts acknowledged that shootings were becoming frequent in the state, but attributed them to a “vicious cycle” that has persisted since the separatist movement in Punjab.
“The youth here don’t want to work hard, they want to go abroad or get involved with gangs. They love fukra baazi (show-off culture). They lack role models to look up to. There is also public distrust of local police. The youth here has only seen gun culture. It’s a trigger-happy Republic,” a senior police officer explained.
He went on, “From gambling in the kabaddi circuit to the music industry, these gangs and their foot soldiers are everywhere. Anyone who becomes a pain for them is killed. People are also killed because they are famous. This is again a way of establishing dominance and increasing fear.”
Several gangsters who went on to spread their criminal networks, leaving behind a long trail of cases across states and countries, either operate from the jail or from safe havens abroad. The list includes who’s who of the underworld—Lawrence Bishnoi gang to Arsh Dalla, Bambiha and Jaggu Bhagwanpuria gangs—and many of their members are spread across the UK, US, Canada, Armenia, Portugal and the UAE, among other countries.
Alliances keep twisting and turning, and splinter groups keep coming up. And gang rivalries add to this menace.
Police said the 18 November killing of Makhan Singh, who worked for a transport company owned by a BJP leader, near the Amritsar bus stand was the work of gangsters Donny Bal and Kaushal Chaudhary. The duo claimed responsibility for the murder on social media, saying that Makhan was killed because he was close to rival gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, who is lodged in an Assam jail.
But police sources said Makhan was killed because the gang could not get to his employer, the BJP leader who has security cover as he was getting extortion threats for a while.
Organised crime has also spawned the emergence of smaller gangs across Punjab. These also involve minors and first-time shooters, many of whom are influenced by social media and online platforms. They are lured into the world of crime, with promises of luxuries, the ability to move abroad, purchase cars, and yield power.
Three senior police officers told ThePrint that the majority—as high as 70 percent—of extortion calls made across the state in the last couple of months have been from offshoots of larger gangs.
Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Punjab Anti-Gangster Task Force, said these groupings don’t adhere to any ideology. “It’s just money and business,” he said.
The DIG said there was no one method to crack down on gangsters, but asserted that police were doing their job. Thirty-seven suspected gangsters and criminals have been killed in encounters since 2022, and 232 have been injured, he said.
The state is also forming a special task force (STF) to focus on the main perpetrators and their handlers sitting abroad.
“The process of deporting these people is easier than extradition. Moreover, even if we can get the ‘nodes’, who connect threats calls from gangsters like Goldy Brar, from countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, it will operationally weaken the gangs. The situation we have is very challenging and it’s not like the efforts haven’t shown results,” Chauhan said. He was referring to Goldy Brar, a former Lawrence Bishnoi aide who is believed to have orchestrated the Sidhu Moosewala murder from Canada.
Unemployment & policing challenges
Experts say the rise of gangs and syndicates is driven by an interplay of socio-economic and cultural factors—unemployment, lack of opportunities for youth and the normalisation of violence.
Worsening the problem is an 80,000-strong force that is stretched thin between routine law-and-order duties, security obligations and cross-border crimes.
A second senior police officer told ThePrint the force was burdened with a lot of work.
“Police stations are depleted because of the workload. Thana staff provide security, attend court hearings, perform VIP duties, and conduct investigations at the same time. This affects the quality of investigation. Even crime prevention becomes a challenge. Sometimes, security needs to be provided immediately after a person gets threats. This isn’t logged on paper. Imagine all of this, along with the smuggling of weapons and a scarred public,” the officer said.
Manjit Singh, a retired professor of sociology at Panjab University, said the state police have lost much of their discipline and independence over the past few decades.
“During the Sikh militancy, officers were given vast powers with little accountability. Since then, honesty and duty have often been sidelined, and promotions and benefits are increasingly tied to political interests. Governments routinely reshuffle the force, leaving policing at the mercy of political elites rather than merit,” Singh said.
Punjab’s Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav refuted this stand, saying the force was thoroughly professional and “on top of its game”.
Instead, Yadav said, youngsters were drawn to organised crime due to social media glorification and unemployment.
“They see crime as easy money. Tackling this requires professional policing to catch the masterminds and reintegrate youth into the mainstream. With government support, the situation will improve soon,” he said, adding that strict action is taken against any police personnel found to be corrupt and complicit.
Economist Ranjit Singh Ghuman also pointed out that the crisis in Punjab was rooted in economic distress.
“Over the past 35 years, the state’s economic growth has slowed sharply, hurting per capita income and job creation. Unemployment remains among the highest in India. Youth joblessness is estimated at over 20. Agriculture is shedding workers, non-farm sectors are failing to absorb them and migration options have narrowed. Low investment, reflected in an investment-to-GDP ratio, has worsened the slowdown,” Ghuman said.
At the same time, he said, “Gun culture, gangster networks and political patronage have flourished. Punjab’s high debt and dependence on borrowing, coupled with untargeted freebies, have limited the state’s ability to invest.”
Data backed this stand. The July-September 2025 Periodic Labour Force Survey found that nearly one-fifth (18.5 percent) of Punjab’s youth was unemployed. And joblessness was higher in rural areas (20.5 percent) compared to their urban (17 percent) counterparts.
Punjab’s unemployment rate among youth is also higher than the national average of 14.8 percent. There are just five states with higher joblessness levels among youngsters than Punjab, the data showed.
Other economic indicators aren’t doing too well either.
According to government data, the state is likely to take a loan of Rs 34,201 crore, which would put its debt liability at over Rs 4 lakh crore by 31 March 2026.
Punjab, Ghuman said, will need to introduce reforms, spur public and private investments, and create jobs to “reverse this slide”.
Also Read: A state with 17 DGPs: Punjab’s policing paradox amid a spate of cold-blooded murders
Too many weapons
According to official estimates, Punjab has a population of 3 crore, and about 4.5 lakh licensed weapons.
Senior police officers that ThePrint spoke with said Punjab is one of the states with the highest per capita rates of gun licences in the country.
This ‘gun culture’ prompted the state government in 2022 to formally impose a ban on the use and display of firearms in public places, in songs and films, and on social media. Last year, the matter reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which sought a report from the state government on enforcement of the ban and penalties issued for violating it.
Still, it isn’t unusual for men in families to own guns. Some of them also carry firearms, citing self-defence.
Konwar Rajeev Singh, the father of kabaddi promoter Rana Balachauria (31) who was allegedly shot dead by allies of the Bambiha gang in Mohali on 15 December, said his son had his licensed pistol on him on the day of the attack.
But the shooters caught Rana off guard. The accused allegedly asked him for a selfie, and when he accepted, they put a black cover on his face before shooting him point blank on the neck.
Rajeev Singh, at his ancestral home in Balachaur village, said Rana would have been able to defend himself had the shooters not covered his face.
“He was our sher bachcha. He would have killed them instead,” Rana’s uncle Konwar Sanjeev Singh added.
The family also owns a gun house. Asked why, the uncle said, “Shauk hai jee humaara. I have one (gun). His (Rana’s) grandfather had one. Everyone in our family has weapons.” They also refuted police’s allegation that Rana was in touch with gangsters.
A border in the way
Adding to the challenge is Punjab’s over 500-km international border with Pakistan, which has been long exploited for smuggling guns, weapons and contraband. Despite multi-layered fencing, anti-drone systems and surveillance, police officers say that nearly 50km of the border is riverine, making it far harder to secure.
Sources told ThePrint that even with 700–800 security personnel deployed along the border, enforcement remains inadequate.
Youngsters from poorer backgrounds are often recruited into these gangs, some of which have links with terrorist outfits in Pakistan, sources said. Gangs have to pay these resources just Rs 2,500-Rs 5,000 in return.
There is “seamless coordination” between handlers across the border and local touts on the Indian side, one source said.
Police said firearms also find their way into the state from within India, particularly from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, and it is difficult to monitor because many members involved in the nexus don’t know of each other.
“The drop-offs for weapons take place between touts. ‘X’ might not know the real identity of ‘Y’, just like in cases of drug smuggling. A lot of the associates are also from UP, Haryana and Rajasthan,” a third senior police officer said.
Punjab Police chief Yadav said the force, in coordination with intelligence and central agencies, has been able to curtail the cross-border influx of weapons.
“Yes, after Operation Sindoor, there was a big push from Pakistan. We seized 400 small weapons in 2025, five times more than 2024. Pakistan is trying to make India bleed through a thousand cuts,” he said, referring to the Indian military operation to target terror in Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack in Kashmir.
Yadav said organised crime has become a tool for terror. “Perceived grievances, misrepresentation of facts, distorted narrative, ideological and monetary incentives—a combination of all these factors lure the youth here in these nexuses,” he said.
Back to Banga
Sources in Punjab Police told ThePrint the main gunman in the Banga attack, Ajay Ralh, had obtained a licensed gun from Jalandhar last year.
“We had no information about the gun before the firing,” a police officer in Nawanshahr said.
Asked whether the licensed weapon was used in the shooting, the officer said, “Probably… Things will only be clear once the accused are arrested.”
By process, proper security verification is to be conducted and criminal record must be checked before licence for a weapon is granted.
According to investigators, two other suspected shooters, Mannu and Manny, were out on bail in a case involving charges for murder along with provisions under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Honey, their target, also has six cases lodged against him for physical assault.
His brother Pawandeep said the shooting was planned after Honey’s friends Rimple, who died in the attack, and Sahil, who was injured, had a verbal spat with Ralh over a scooter collision two days earlier.
“They had settled the dispute among themselves. We don’t understand why they came back to kill them,” Pawandeep, who runs a tattoo shop and an NRI-car rental service, said.
But police suspect that members of the ‘Kala Fly’ gang from Punjab’s Hoshiarpur, largely unknown beyond local crime circles, helped the accused plan and execute the shooting.
So far, nine people have been arrested, including those who allegedly carried out reconnaissance and provided logistical support. But the three main shooters remain at large.
Until they are caught, the family said, fear is a constant presence.
No one way ahead
According to intelligence inputs, the Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar split could trigger a tug of war among gangsters.
With this looming threat, there is no one method to clamp down on organised crime. Police officers, too, appeared to be divided.
Some within the force argued that gangs can only be throttled by neutralising their heads.
“This lawlessness can only be contained by diminishing the brand value of larger gangs,” a senior police officer said.
His colleague doesn’t think that will work. This approach would only be a “band-aid”; it won’t last, he said.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
If you are a Punjabi – listen to me as someone who is seriously concerned for that state – don’t sell your lands to go to abroad where you will definitely struggle. Social media is not the reality. It only shows you the cases where people have successfully changed their life but 9 out of 10 are just rotting abroad.
Stop with this disgusting gun culture because you are not going to see the ill effects of this today but you will when you are dying. Look at black Americans in USA. They are doing the same and honestly you guys are dabbling with similar culture. Both cultures glorify guns and violence in their songs. Everyone in this country will move ahead eventually and you will remain poor only to be mocked for the rest of your life. It’s coming and you know it. So please change your lives for your own sake.
Please use Google Translate to understand the same in Punjabi or Hindi. Google Translate use kare agar English nahi ata hai.
This is what gun cultures looks like. Their songs and social media is filled with guns and violence.
That officer in the article said that “they don’t want to work, they only want to do show off” is so true. I mean these people do dunki to basically ruin their lives in some other western country. They literally sell lands to go through illegal route and they can’t even speak proper English. Kya karna hai udhar Jake “ji truck chala na hai” seriously there is a reason our passports are weaks it’s because of people like this. They have also damaged our reputation outside by involving in visa fraud and other crimes.
Something is really wrong in this state and its culture.
Root cause of all troubles is burgeoning farm electricity subsidy and addiction to growing rice
Please add ‘socialism’ to the ‘vicious cycle’. It is the mother of all maladies.