Jallandhar – Leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa and Phillaur MLA Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary met with the family members of slain cloth merchant Timmy Chawla and Constable Mandeep Singh in Nakodar and village Kotli Gazran, respectively, here on Monday. They were accompanied by Phagwara MLA Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal and former minister Amarjit Singh Samra.
The Congress leaders called on both the families to express their condolences, days after Timmy Chawla and Mandeep Singh were gunned down by four assailants in the main bazaar of Nakodar last Wednesday. A businessman, Timmy Chawla was given police protection after he received extortion calls from gangsters.
After meeting the families, LoP Bajwa said it was unfortunate that both Chawla and Singh were shot dead in the main market of Nakodar city.
He demanded swift justice in the case and said the government should provide suitable jobs to at least one member of their families.
Both of the victims had small children who need care in the absence of their fathers, he said, adding that the government should give adequate compensation and jobs to their family members.
Criticizing law and order situation in the state, he said such incidents were happening every day all over the state, but despite the continuous spate of murders over the last several months, Bhagwant Mann government was in deep slumber and had an extremely casual attitude about the murders. The gangsters, he said, had become so emboldened that they were choosing and executing their targets at sheer will with no fear of police and law.
The Qadian MLA further said that after so many targeted killings in broad daylight, the entire Punjab was gripped by fear and everyone was living with a sense of insecurity.
“People are now remembering the decades of 1980s and 1990s, when the militancy was at peak. They are wondering if they are the next on the hit list of the gangsters. We have been warning the government on law and order issue from day one as Punjab is a border and sensitive state, but our cautions have fallen on deaf ears. I don’t know how many precious needs to be lost before Bhagwant Mann takes serious action,” he said.
