Chandigarh: Audacious gangsterism, cross-border terror attacks and high profile murders dominated developments in Punjab in 2022 — the year that also saw the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) historic rise to power in the state.
Though the AAP government has claimed that there’s been a downward trend in the number of murders and other grave crimes in the state this year, statistics offer little solace to the party that is being seen as having failed at keeping a tight grip on law and order.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is facing mounting criticism since he assumed the post in March for not being able to handle the situation with the maturity and firmness that is required in the sensitive border state. The opposition has even gone to the extent of saying that the AAP has taken Punjab to the brink of revival of Khalistani militancy.
Mann, who was last week ridiculed in assembly by opposition Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal for his alleged drinking problem, has also been called a “dummy CM” controlled by AAP’s Delhi leadership.
This year Punjab witnessed at least three cross border terror attacks when rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) were launched and an IED blast took place, all in police buildings. The cold-blooded killings of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala, right-wing Hindu leader Sudhir Suri and sacrilege case accused Pardeep Singh dominated the political narrative through the year. The state also witnessed Hindu-Sikh clashes amid growing radicalisation.
At a press conference Monday, Inspector General (IG) of Police Sukhchain Singh Gill said that despite increased cross-border narco terror activities that included use of drones to deliver weapons and drugs, as well as intensified gangsterism, the police remained on top of the situation and were able to crack all major criminal activities that had taken place in the state this year.
The year 2021 had ended on an ominous note with a powerful bomb blast in the Ludhiana civil court in December. The blast had led to the death of a former policeman who allegedly assembled the bomb, and injury to others. Gangster-turned-terrorist Harvinder Singh alias Rinda, who is reportedly protected by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was said to be behind the attack.
While Rinda reportedly died of a drug overdose in Pakistan in November, another key conspirator in the Ludhiana blast case Harpreet Singh alias Happy Malaysia was arrested in Delhi airport earlier this month.
Also Read: In Punjab’s paddy fields, farmers hail a new low-cost, high-yield rice varieties ‘revolution
Terror attacks
In January, the Punjab Police recovered a grenade launcher along with almost 4 kg of RDX in Gurdaspur ahead of Republic Day celebrations, thwarting a possible terror attack.
However, the police were not able to prevent two subsequent RPG attacks, one on the Punjab Police intelligence headquarters in Mohali in May, and another on a police station complex in Sarhali village in Tarn Taran district this month.
These were the first of their kind attacks in Punjab and brought into focus the growing links between terrorists and gangsters and their increased ability to carry out grave crimes through a complex network of trigger happy youngsters, many of them minors.
The year ended with the police busting a terror module operating from the Philippines and recovering another RPG from three accused arrested from Tarn Taran.
Counted among the terror activities was the IED blast at a police post in Kalwa in Ropar on the eve of declaration of assembly election results in March.
IG Gill said that this year, internal security had busted 18 terror modules in total and arrested 119 terrorists/radicals. As many as 13 Tiffin Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), 24.5 kg of RDX and other explosives, 37 hand grenades, two sleeves of a disposed rocket launcher and 22 drones had been recovered, apart from pistols and rifles, he revealed.
High-profile murders
In April, the Mann government created a specialised wing — the Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) — in the Punjab Police to deal with gangsters. They, however, remained a step ahead of the police through the year, executing high profile killings.
In May, a gang war led to the murder of singing sensation Sidhu Moose Wala. Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar is believed to have been the mastermind behind the killing. Brar suspected that Moose Wala was helping members of his rival Davinder Bambiha gang, led by Gaurav alias Lucky Patial. More than two dozen gangsters and their accomplices allegedly involved in the killing have been arrested.
In October, gangsters allegedly killed a cloth merchant in Tarn Taran after he refused to pay an extortion amount of Rs 20 lakh.
In November, a controversial right-wing leader Sudhir Suri was killed in a busy Amritsar market where he was sitting in protest outside a temple. He was accompanied by at least a dozen security men when he was shot dead. The alleged killer, a cloth merchant, was arrested on the spot. The police said that the killing was a result of hate crime and not a pre-planned murder.
Less than a week after Suri’s killing, another police protectee, Pardeep Singh, was shot dead outside his shop in Kotkapura. Singh was an accused in the sacrilege incidents of 2015. More than half a dozen gangsters involved in the crime were arrested by the Delhi and Punjab police.
In the first week of December, yet another police protectee, a cloth trader Bhupinder Singh Timmy Chawla, and his police guard Mandeep Singh were killed in a busy market in Nakodar. The incident took place barely a kilometre away from the police station. The police arrested three persons and claimed that the double murder case had been cracked.
According to IG Gill, the Anti-Gangster Task Force, since its formation on 6 April 2022, had busted 111 gangster/criminal modules and arrested 428 gangsters or criminals and neutralised two. The force had also seized over 400 weapons, about 100 vehicles and 43 kg of heroin from these criminals.
Patiala clashes & growing radicalisation
Barely a month after the Mann government came to power in Punjab, there was a group clash between Hindus and Sikhs. Shiv Sena leader Harish Singla, who led the Hindu group, had announced that he and his supporters would carry out an anti-Khalistan march in Patiala. Objecting to the move, a group of Sikh youth clashed with Singla and his group to stop them from carrying out the march.
The clash took place outside the famous Kali Mata temple in Patiala and the situation forced the district administration to impose curfew in this district while shutting down internet services.
In January a sacrilege attempt had been made at the Kali Mata temple and a Sikh youth was arrested for it.
Opposition parties have expressed concern over the ‘radicalisation’ of Sikh youth in the state. Amrit Pal Singh Sandhu, who claimed the legacy of actor-turned-Khalistan ideologue Deep Sidhu after his death in February, emerged on the Punjab scene in October and started moving around in villages to baptise Sikh youth. Sandhu had left his family’s transport business in Dubai and returned to the state in August.
Sandhu claimed that he intended to bring Sikh youth back into the fold of religion and wean them away from drugs. Surrounded by armed men Sandhu has also been espousing the cause of Khalistan, encouraging Sikh youth to be ready to sacrifice their heads for their religion.
(Edited by Geethalakshmi Ramanathan)
Also Read: No other option’ — as its fields turn black & skies smoky, why Punjab won’t stop burning stubble