34 Encounters in 3 Months in Panjab; Policemen Found Dead

In Nov 2025, Panjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said that since April 2022, a month after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) formed the government in Panjab, the state police had recorded '324 encounters with gangsters' resulting in the death of 24 and arrest of 515 people. The National Human Rights Commission had issued a notice to the Panjab Home Secretary seeking an Action Taken Report on 'state-sanctioned extra-judicial killings'. The notice remains unanswered. Since the DGP’s announcement, police records show the Panjab police reported 34 encounters resulting in five deaths and injuries to 45 people. More than a third of the encounters took place when the accused were in custody; in several cases, police said the 'handcuffed' accused grabbed a hidden weapon and opened fire when taken for 'recovery.' In at least eight of these incidents, police personnel were shot at 'indiscriminately' but the policemen were saved 'because of bulletproof jackets.' Police say they shot at the accused in the feet or legs only after issuing warnings, and after the accused had 'opened fire.' The encounters were—one each in Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar, Moga, Hoshiarpur, and Fazilka; two each in Patiala, Batala, Khanna, Ferozepur, Mohali, Tarn Taran, and Jalandhar; five in Ludhiana; and nine in Amritsar district. A recent editorial opined, 'Encounters, including and especially those involving individuals in the state’s custody, will only deepen disillusion and cynicism....Punjab’s history stands as a cautionary tale of how quickly such cycles can spiral into prolonged turmoil.' Meanwhile, on 18 Feb, forty-years-old an AAP village council leader Harbarinder Singh from Thathian Mahantan village, Tarn Taran, was shot dead and his relative Jermandeep Singh injured, when two assailants opened fire during a wedding ceremony at Sheron village, also in Tarn Taran district. On 22 Feb, the police apprehended two key suspects near a canal in the same district’s Naushehra Pannuan village. In a separate incident, two policemen were found dead with bullet injuries near the International Border in Adhian village, Gurdaspur—an area notorious for drug trafficking. They were identified as Assistant Sub-Inspector Gurnam Singh and Ashok Kumar from the Home Guard. The circumstances of the deaths are yet to be ascertained (earlier coverage).