Punjab Congress MP urges Home Minister to help stop extortion, gang wars

New Delhi, Dec 11 Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Congress Lok Sabha MP from Ludhiana, on Thursday sought Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s intervention to check extortion and improve the law-and-order situation in Punjab.

Speaking in the lower house, Warring said there is an atmosphere of fear across Punjab. “People, especially businessmen, are receiving calls from abroad and from prisons, and ransom is being demanded,” he said.

“People who do not pay the ransom are being murdered. Recently, in Ludhiana, there was a shooting in broad daylight during a wedding programme gang war broke out around 1.30 p.m., and the crossfire between two rival gangs and two guests,” he said.

The Congress MP also hit out at the Shiromani Akali Dal for “giving” a ticket to a gangster, allowing criminals a free run in politics.

“Gangsters are openly calling sarpanches and threatening them over the phone to seek votes. The situation is such that now gangsters are calling and threatening politicians and bureaucrats,” he said.

Warring also called out a recent decision of the authorities to keep a notorious gangster confined to the jail in another state, putting restrictions on his being taken to other states for trial.

“Punjab is burning, and the authorities are watching helplessly,” he said.

“Despite all this happening, the state government and the police have remained silent spectators. In such a situation, I urge the Home Minister to take cognisance of this matter and rescue Punjab,” he said.

The 2022 murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala was one of the most high-profile crimes that pointed to the growing activities of gangsters in Punjab. The case had brought the activities of the Lawrence Bishnoi-Gold Brar syndicate’s activities into focus.

In November 2024, international gangster Anmol Bishnoi, brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, was arrested in California for entering the country using illegal documents and was later brought back to India.

According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which questioned Anmol, he is a key member of the BKI-Bishnoi gangster syndicate and played an active role in running its operations. His suspected Khalistani links, along with his involvement in the broader criminal network, remain key areas of investigation.

Anmol is facing multiple criminal cases, including the conspiracy behind the murder of former Maharashtra Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddique, who was shot dead in Mumbai in October last year.

Earlier, Congress Member of Parliament and Punjab’s former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa alleged that jailed gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuriya had issued a threat to kill his son. He alleged that his son was also fired upon shortly after the threat in Punjab.

--IANS

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