Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa Monday said he has received a death threat on his phone from a US mobile number with the sender claiming to be from Lawrence Bishnoi gang. The message also included the names of Balkaur Singh, the slain Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala’s father, singer Mankirat Aulakh, human rights activist Gurmeet Bablu and a liquor businessman Aman Jaintipur who has already been attacked once.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO
The message in Punjabi asks those who names are listed to be prepared for a re-birth. It adds that they can get their security increased as much as they want. “You can run where wherever you want or hide wherever you want but you will be punished in such a way that generations will remember,” it says.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Randhawa said he received the message at around 1 pm. “I have apprised the DGP in the past too about the threats that my son and I have been getting from gangsters but nothing has been done. I have complained in writing about the conduct of Batala SSP Suhail Qasim Mir and Dera Baba Nanak DSP to the DGP on how they are hand in glove with gangsters but no action has been taken,” he claimed.
The Congress leader added that when gangsters can openly get their family members to contest elections in the state (referring to Tarn Taran by-poll SAD candidate) then the law and order situation in Punjab can be easily deciphered.
A senior officer at Punjab Police Headquarters said the threat message will be analysed to ascertain if it was from Lawrence Bishnoi gang or someone else was using his name. “There have been threats to Randhawa in the past but these were from gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria. Lawrence Bishnoi gang does not have any beef with the human rights activist or the liquor businessman so this message has to be verified,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Gurdaspur MP has written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the deteriorating law and order situation in Punjab and the alleged evolving nexus of gangs–extortion–narcotics–cross-border facilitation. Stating that it raises clear national security concerns in a sensitive border state he has urged the constitution of an MHA-led Inter-Agency Task Force comprising IB/NIA/NCB/BSF with State Special Task Force (STF) and Counter Intelligence (CI) to map and dismantle extortion and gun-running modules with potential cross-border links.
Randhawa said this task force should also audit custodial security and court-production protocols, fast-track UAPA/NDPS/economic-offence cases where justified, institute a witness and victim protection grid for NRIs and vulnerable businesspersons and identify and remove any “black sheep” within the police or prison apparatus facilitating gangs.
Story continues below this ad
“Punjab Police must never be seen as pliant to political handlers or hostile to the free press. Their singular mandate is to secure citizens, uphold the law, and protect the Republic’s constitutional freedoms—simultaneously,” wrote Randhawa referring to the disruption of newspaper distribution across Punjab on the intervening night of November 1-2.
“Instead of neutralising gang networks, the Punjab Police chose to detain and delay newspaper vans. This appears to be a politically directed exercise that throttled dissemination of news rather than criminals. As a former Home Minister, I find this both professionally indefensible and institutionally corrosive,” he said.
