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Amit Shah meets families of three slain anti-drug activists in Punjab and sets a 2029 deadline for a drug-free state
On a day-long visit to Gurdaspur, Sangrur and Mansa, the Home Minister met the families of three men who died after standing up to drugs. Hours earlier the state sent the Jhota murder case to the CBI. Jhota's family has still not cremated him.
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4 min
Union Home Minister Amit Shah spent Tuesday afternoon in Punjab meeting the families of three men who died after standing up to the drug trade, and the trip opened with an answer to one family's main demand. Hours before Shah arrived, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced on X that the murder of activist Parvinder Singh Jhota would be handed to the Central Bureau of Investigation. "The family's demand has been accepted," he wrote, "and we are handing over the case to the CBI."
Shah has set 31 December 2029 as the date by which he wants Punjab free of the drug trade. He called the day purely humanitarian and rejected the political criticism it drew. According to reports, he also urged Mann to give the other two deaths to the CBI as well, saying the state "will not be able to handle it".
Three families, three journeys
Shah's first stop was Mari Panwan village in Gurdaspur district, the home of Bikramjit Singh, who was killed on 15 October, allegedly for opposing drug peddling in his area. His niece, Saroj Deepak, said Shah assured the family of justice and a drug-free Punjab, and told them the case would go to the CBI. "We demand justice and that Punjab be made drug-free," she said.
Next came Toor Banjara village in Sangrur district, the home of Gulzar Singh, a Dalit man who died by suicide on 7 September. His family alleges that he swallowed poison after being harassed and abused with casteist slurs for questioning Punjab's Finance Minister, Harpal Singh Cheema, about the supply of drugs in his locality.
The last visit carried the most weight. Parvinder Singh Jhota, 42, was shot on 13 October inside a medical store in a busy Mansa market while he was broadcasting live on Facebook. He had been questioning the owner about selling addictive drugs to an elderly man, and four of his associates were hurt. The owner, Ashwani Kumar, was arrested in Salasar in Rajasthan. Shah's helicopter landed at the new grain market in Mansa at about 3:15 pm, and he reached the family home on Waterworks Road eleven minutes later, travelling in a bulletproof vehicle supplied by the state. He left at 3:46 pm, accompanied by Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon.
A family that has not cremated its dead
A week after the shooting, Jhota's family has not held last rites, and his body remains at the civil hospital in Mansa because the family has not agreed to a post-mortem. Its father, Bhim Singh, is a retired soldier. Besides a CBI inquiry, the family and an action committee want the post-mortem done at PGIMER in Chandigarh, the strictest punishment for the accused through a fast-track court, and the resignations of Mann and the state's director general of police, Gaurav Yadav. The CBI handover meets the first of those demands and none of the others.
On Monday Bhim Singh said the family would not oppose Shah's visit but expected justice: "we expect justice in my son's case." The Akal Takht jathedar visited the family earlier and gave Jhota the status of a martyr of the Sikh community. Sidhu Moosewala's father, Balkaur Singh, went to the protest site and urged Bhim Singh to raise a second matter with Shah: why gangsters held in Sabarmati jail are not being produced in court for trial. The farm union BKU Ekta (Ugrahan) has asked for Rs 2 crore in compensation for the family.
Anger on the streets
The Shaheed Bhai Parvinder Singh Jhota Insaaf Morcha has led the protests in Mansa, with civil society groups, farm unions, village councils, Sikh organisations and ex-servicemen taking part. A statewide bandh was observed on 15 October. Protesters have torn down hoardings of Mann and his government's welfare schemes, and posters calling him an "imaandar" (sincere) chief minister were defaced to read "baiman" (dishonest). Clashes with police were reported in Sangrur, Ropar, Patiala and Zira, and police in Faridkot registered cases against three people under the Punjab Prevention of Damage to Public and Private Property Act. On Monday protesters left condemnation letters outside the homes of all 92 AAP legislators; none of them came out to receive them.
Mann's government launched its "Yudh Nasheya Virudh" anti-drug campaign in March 2025, and critics now ask what it has delivered. Some in the protest movement also objected to Shah's visit, noting that the Border Security Force and the Union home ministry control 50 km of the Pakistan border, a known route for drugs into Punjab. At a rally in Jalandhar on 20 September Shah had said the BJP would contest the 2027 Punjab election on the drugs issue and pledged to wipe out drugs by December 2029. State BJP leader Fatehjang Singh Bajwa said the party "always delivers on its promises".
The CBI will now take over the Jhota file. Whether the family agrees to cremate him, whether the Bikramjit Singh and Gulzar Singh cases follow, and how Mann answers Shah's request are the points to watch.
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4 min
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