several policemen had been shot in Punjab over the past thirty or forty days; would I write about it? The concern deserves an answer. So do the families who are still waiting at the door for someone in uniform to come home. Condolences acknowledge a loss. Government’s job is to prevent the next one.
Every police shift in Punjab begins with a roll-call — names read out, voices answering, duties allotted. I shall hold every proposal below to that humble ritual, and ask of each whether it makes it likelier that every name read out tonight is answered again tomorrow morning.
A Careful Count
First, the facts, without inflation. ASI (Assistant Sub-Inspector) Harjit Singh, on PCR (police control room) duty, was shot at close range by two motorcycle-borne men at the Bhagtanwala grain market, Amritsar, in the early hours of 18 September 2026. ASI Iqbal Singh was killed in Tarn Taran on 11 October. ASI Sukhchain Singh survived a shooting on 4 October; ASI Jaswant Singh survived an earlier attack. Deaths and attempted murders must be recorded separately. Together, they warrant urgent intervention — without any need for an exaggerated tally.
Nor should every attack be assigned the same motive. Investigators have examined personal or family rivalries in some cases and suspected cross-border links in another. Each is an investigative lead; none is yet a verdict. Gunmen may share a method without sharing a conspiracy. Protection must begin at once; attribution must follow evidence.
From Condolence to Consignment
Having served as Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, through difficult years (1992–96), and later as Additional Chief Secretary (Home), I would begin where administrators always must: a named officer, a defined responsibility, a deadline, and money. Punjab needs a ninety-day programme run by the Chief Secretary and the DGP, reviewed weekly by the Chief Minister, with its first measures in place within seventy-two hours.
The Finance Department should identify immediate resources and fund verified gaps — maintenance and training included, which are always the first lines struck off a revised estimate. Emergency purchasing must still keep its quality checks and audit trails. Money spent should be measured against one thing only: protection actually delivered to personnel on duty.
Threats Are Not Private Property
The first task is a confidential threat review covering officers in vulnerable assignments and those reporting credible threats from outside work. An officer threatened through a family dispute is still entitled to protection. Unit commanders should record the warning, assess it, assign an owner and review the response. A complaint must not vanish because someone has labelled it “personal”.
Protection should then follow assessed risk: safer transport, temporary accommodation, an escort, revised duties, or security for an exposed family. No State can provide a convoy to every constable. It can, however, stop leaving a demonstrably threatened constable to devise his own protection.
Kit in the Godown, Kit on the Body
Second, count what frontline personnel actually possess and use — serviceable protective jackets, suitable helmets, working radios, reliable vehicles, emergency medical kits — at the point of deployment, not in the stores ledger. A sanction letter issued in Chandigarh protects nobody on a night patrol in Majitha until the jacket itself reaches him. Record shortages unit by unit, issue available stock immediately, and buy the rest against a time-bound, auditable plan.
The 26 September encounter in Amritsar shows why. Reporting on it described Head Constable Mandeep Singh’s bulletproof jacket stopping a bullet, while another policeman suffered a leg injury. A jacket cannot abolish danger. Worn, it can decide who answers the next roll-call.
Equipment needs training, maintenance and sensible deployment. Review staffing at vulnerable posts, backup arrangements and emergency communications. Provide recurring practical training in safe policing, de-escalation and casualty care. Fix ambulance coordination and designated receiving hospitals. Record response times, so that failures become correctable facts rather than anecdotes told after a funeral.
Intelligence Needs an Owner
Third, give intelligence a clear chain of responsibility. District police, counter-intelligence, the anti-gangster task force and prison authorities should share information through an existing coordination mechanism, drawing in the BSF and central agencies where evidence warrants. Punjab does not need another impressive acronym whose creation becomes a substitute for action.
Every actionable warning should produce an assignment: who checks it, by when, and who confirms that protection or investigation followed. A weekly confidential assessment should separate verified information, credible leads and uncorroborated claims. That discipline protects both operations and innocent people.
Follow the Paymaster Past the Pillion Rider
Fourth, investigate the network behind the shooter. Each serious attack needs a stable investigation team, supported early by forensic specialists, financial investigators and a prosecutor. Preserve CCTV promptly; examine weapons, communications and payment trails through lawful procedure. Arresting the expendable recruit on the pillion seat, and stopping there, leaves the machinery of the crime intact.
can provide a convoy to every constable. It can, however, stop leaving a demonstrably threatened constable to devise his own protection.
Where evidence points abroad, prepare usable legal requests through the competent central authorities. Where it points into a prison, examine illicit communications and possible staff complicity. Where it points to a local feud, say so honestly. An international explanation must never excuse an accessible local offender; nor should a local explanation prematurely close a wider inquiry.
Investigators also need protected time. In Prakash Singh v. Union of India (2006), the Supreme Court directed that investigation be separated from law-and-order work, alongside safeguards on tenure and accountability. Punjab should honestly assess how far that has been implemented, and begin with adequately staffed serious-crime teams that are not routinely diverted to VIP and ceremonial duty. Separation takes personnel and supervision; new labels on old desks achieve nothing.
From Charge-Sheet to Conviction
Fifth, carry cases through to court. Assign prosecutors early enough to spot evidentiary gaps while they can still be repaired. Track forensic delays, missing documents, witness intimidation and avoidable adjournments. The executive can improve preparation and attendance; it cannot dictate verdicts.
Witness protection has to work on the ground as well as in the gazette. The Witness Protection Scheme, 2018 already provides for threat-based measures, including identity protection and relocation. Designate a district contact, make funds accessible, and act on applications before a frightened witness retracts.
Reviewing the Night of the Shooting
Sixth, enforce professional accountability up the command. Every fatal attack and serious near-miss should receive a structured review by officers from outside the unit, covering prior warnings, deployment, equipment, communications, medical response and supervision. Distinguish unavoidable danger from preventable failure, and give each recommendation a named owner and a deadline.
The same standard must govern the response to suspects. Police need lawful authority, dependable backup and institutional support when facing armed violence; allegations of unlawful force need credible investigation. Counting encounter deaths is no measure of whether a criminal network has been dismantled. The real test is attacks prevented, and responsibility established before a court on admissible evidence.
Manpower on Parade, Manpower on Patrol
Seventh, audit the distribution of manpower — attachments, ceremonial deployments and personal-security assignments — against current necessity and recorded threat assessments. Return avoidable commitments to frontline work without withdrawing justified protection. Fill critical vacancies, fix rosters, provide rest. Exhaustion, uncertain postings and neglected welfare are management failures; speeches about bravery cannot cure them.
Political leadership should set priorities, provide resources and demand results, while keeping individual investigations and routine postings free of partisan pressure. An honest officer should know that refusing an improper instruction will not cost him his posting — and that neglecting a genuine threat will invite scrutiny.
Families Should Not Carry Files
Eighth, make family support automatic. Give every bereaved or seriously injured officer’s family one liaison officer, who tracks compensation, insurance, pension, treatment and children’s education through to delivery. Publish aggregate settlement times. No widow should carry her grief from office to office, collecting signatures for benefits already announced on television.
The Beat Before the Bullet
Finally, rebuild the local relationships on which prevention depends. Beat officers need time to listen to residents, traders, transporters and village representatives. Confidential reporting must be accessible and trusted; complaints must be registered promptly and people treated with respect. Indiscriminate suspicion drives information away. A community that expects fairness is the one that tells the thana what it has seen.
Seventy-Two Hours, Thirty Days, Ninety Days
The programme therefore needs three milestones. Within seventy-two hours: review urgent threats and close immediate protection gaps. Within thirty days: complete the deployment and equipment audits, fix investigation ownership, and activate family and witness support. By ninety days: publish an aggregate progress statement — shortages remedied, response performance, forensic delays, support delivered — withholding sensitive operational detail.
At each weekly review, the Chief Minister should ask three questions. Which identified risks have been reduced? Which promises remain undelivered? Who must act next?
Punjab’s police deserve that practical commitment; its citizens deserve the security that follows. Honour the fallen with dignity. Honour their service by making sure that, at tomorrow’s roll-call, every name read out is answered.
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