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Man shot dead in Amritsar bus stand, search on for assailants
Victim Makhan Singh was employee of transport company owned by Gurdaspur BJP leader Ravikaran Singh Kahlon, who alleges police inaction on extortion complaint.
In the second fatal shooting in Amritsar district in two days, gangsters killed a 45-year-old manager of a transport company owned by a Gurdaspur BJP leader at the Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT) in the city on Tuesday morning, police said.
The incident, which took place at 9.50am, triggered panic in the crowded ISBT with people running for cover as the gangsters opened fire on Makhan Singh, the manager at Kahlon Transport Company owned by Ravikaran Singh Kahlon.
Six cartridges were recovered from the spot and CCTV footage was being scanned to identify the accused, said assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Gagandeep Singh.
BJP leader Kahlon said that his family and employees in his company that runs buses in Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts have been getting extortion and threat calls from gangsters for the past two months. He said he had informed top police officials and urged them to take the matter seriously.
“We lodged a complaint and an FIR was also registered, but no action was taken. Now I have lost an employee who was like my son. He worked in my company for 25 years. The gangsters had been demanding a ransom of ₹2 crore. We want the killers to be arrested at the earliest,” he said.
The incident comes two days after a grocery shop owner, Manjit Singh, 65, was shot dead by gangsters at Dhoolka village in the Baba Bakala area of Amritsar district. His son, Lakhwinder Singh, said gangsters had demanded a ransom of ₹50 lakh that the family refused to pay.
Meanwhile, police teams have been formed to track down the assailants and checkpoints have been set up across Amritsar.
Taking on the Aam Aadmi Party government, Congress MLA Pargat Singh posted on X, “Not a day passes without violence in Punjab. Today, a man was shot dead in broad daylight at the Amritsar bus stand. When bullets are fired in a public space like a bus terminal, it shows how dangerously law and order has collapsed. Every city, every single day, we are witnessing such incidents. Punjab is slipping into a deeply unsafe environment, and the Bhagwant Mann government has pushed the state into this climate of fear.”
