Punjab will be soon free of gangsters: Bhagwant Mann
Darpan News Desk IANS, 21 Jul, 2022 12:23 PM
Chandigarh, July 21 (IANS) Complimenting the Punjab Police and the Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) for successfully carrying out an operation to gun down two sharpshooters involved in the killing of famed Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said on Thursday that the state will soon be free of gangsters and drug peddlers.
"It is my guarantee to the people of the state that we will not allow anyone to disturb the hard-earned peace in Punjab, and every effort will be made to maintain peace and communal harmony in the state by making it free of gangsters and drug peddlers," the Chief Minister said.
During a meeting with Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav and other officers, who called on him at his official residence here, Mann said that gangsters and drug peddlers were patronised by the previous governments.
He said under the protection of Akalis and Congress, gangsters and drug peddlers had a free run in the state because their masters used them for their own vested political interests.
However, Mann said that after assuming charge, his government accorded top priority to free Punjab of gangsters and drug smugglers, adding that the day is not far when all of them will be behind the bars.
The Chief Minister said the action of Punjab Police on Wednesday to eliminate two sharpshooters involved in the killing of Moosewala was in consonance with the zero-tolerance policy of the government against gangsters and anti-social elements.
Mann said the AGTF had identified the sharpshooters after which the police zeroed down on the abandoned building in Amritsar district where they were hiding, adding that the Punjab Police carried out the operation in a highly professional manner by displaying exemplary courage.
During the meeting, the DGP and AGTF head Pramod Ban apprised the Chief Minister about the entire operation.
While briefing the officers, the DGP said the topmost priority of the government, as directed by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, is to further strengthen the fight against drugs to make Punjab a drug-free state, besides eliminating the gangster culture, maintaining law and order, and detection of crime.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur announced Rs 5 lakh to the next of the kin of the deceased, whereas Rs 15,000 as immediate relief for the injured. He said free treatment would be provided to the injured.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday carried out his first Cabinet expansion by inducting five legislators, including second-time MLA Aman Arora, into his council of ministers. The expansion came in less than four months of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sweeping to victory in the Assembly elections by winning 92 seats of the 117 seats.
The police have so far managed to nab four of the accused, including one woman, who have been identified as Gurjant Singh (31), Navjot Singh (30), Satpal Singh (28) and Gurpreet Kaur (30).
The ambidextrous sharpshooter, identified as Ankit alias Chhota, a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, was most desperate to commit the crime."He fired simultaneously from two pistols in his two hands," H.G.S. Dhaliwal, Special Commissioner (Special Cell), said during a media briefing.
With this the two-and-half year old, three-party Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress government experiment has collapsed, barely hours after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari ordered a floor test late on Tuesday night.
