Union home minister Amit Shah will visit Punjab on Tuesday to meet the families of three people whose deaths have intensified the state’s debate over drug trafficking, policing and public safety. His schedule includes visits to villages in Gurdaspur, Sangrur and Mansa, a media interaction in Ludhiana and a Dussehra event featuring an effigy described as the ‘Ravan of Chitta’.
Shah will first travel from Amritsar to Mari Panwan village in Gurdaspur district at noon to meet the family of Bikramjit Singh, who was allegedly hacked to death on October 15 for opposing drug sales, according to the report. At 1.30pm, he is scheduled to visit Toor Banjara village in Sangrur district to meet the family of Gulzar Singh, who died by suicide on September 7 after allegedly facing harassment for questioning Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema about drug sales in the village.
The Union minister will then travel to Mansa at 2.30pm to meet the family of anti-drug activist Parminder Singh Jhota, who was killed on October 13. A protest demanding justice in the case is under way in the town. The report did not provide details of any investigation findings or court proceedings in the three cases.
Shah is scheduled to address the media at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana at 3.30pm before attending a Dussehra function at Ramlila Ground at 4.30pm. The event will include the burning of an effigy billed as the ‘Ravan of Chitta’. ‘Chitta’ is used in local parlance for heroin.
The visit has triggered a political exchange over responsibility for drug trafficking, gangsterism and law and order. Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, without naming Shah in a post on X, said the Bharatiya Janata Party could not manage law and order in its own states. Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema also criticised the BJP-led Centre and questioned why reports of criminal activity and threatening calls linked to jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi continued despite his incarceration in Sabarmati Jail.
Cheema said cases involving murder, extortion and kidnapping had been registered against Bishnoi in different parts of the country. The report did not independently establish the claims made during the political exchange.
Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal has written to Shah seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into Jhota’s murder and a wider investigation into what she described as a “politician-police-drug mafia nexus in Punjab”. Punjab Congress in-charge Sachin Pilot said the visit would have little meaning without concrete action on law and order, adding that the Centre had a responsibility to prevent illegal arms and drugs from entering through the Pakistan border.
The visit will also affect movement in Ludhiana, where authorities have planned a large security deployment. Ludhiana deputy commissioner of police (headquarters) Paramjit Singh said 2,500 personnel had been deployed, while another 2,000 personnel had been sought as additional force. Several roads leading to the venues will be declared no-vehicle zones, he said.
The scheduled meetings place the families’ allegations and demands for investigations at the centre of a wider dispute involving policing, drug supply networks, border security and administrative accountability. The immediate operational measures in Ludhiana are the deployment of additional personnel and restrictions on vehicle movement around Shah’s venues during the visit.
