A hardware shopkeeper shot dead in broad daylight, a local police officer's name surfacing in an FBI action, and a state government that Congress says has gone quiet — Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Sunday, 18 October 2026, took sharp aim at the AAP government in Punjab, demanding a high-level impartial inquiry into the killing of Balwinder Singh, an AAP supporter, in Urmur Tanda, Hoshiarpur.

Writing in both Punjabi and Hindi, Pilot recalled that Balwinder Singh — identified as an Aam Aadmi Party supporter — was shot dead at his hardware shop in broad daylight in January 2026. He flagged that the Station House Officer (SHO) linked to the case had subsequently been named in an FBI action, calling it an extremely serious development that compounded the gravity of the original crime.

The SHO–FBI angle that sharpened the charge

Pilot's post went beyond a routine law-and-order critique by highlighting the alleged FBI link to the case's SHO — a detail that, if borne out by investigation, would raise questions about the integrity of the initial probe. 'ਇਸ ਮਾਮਲੇ ਨਾਲ ਜੁੜੇ ਐੱਸ.ਐੱਚ.ਓ. ਦਾ ਨਾਮ ਐੱਫ.ਬੀ.ਆਈ. ਦੀ ਕਾਰਵਾਈ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਾਹਮਣੇ ਆਉਣਾ ਵੀ ਬੇਹੱਦ ਗੰਭੀਰ ਮਾਮਲਾ ਹੈ' ['The SHO connected to this case being named in FBI action is also an extremely serious matter'], Pilot wrote. He called for every aspect of the case to be investigated with full impartiality and for accountability to be fixed with concrete action.

AAP's own supporter — and why that stings politically

Pilot underscored what he called the deepest irony of the situation: the victim was not a political opponent of the ruling party but the party's own supporter. 'When even an AAP supporter is murdered, and even in such a serious matter the government's attitude appears irresponsible, that is all the more worrying,' he wrote. The pointed framing was designed to strip the AAP government of any defence that the incident was politically motivated opposition noise.

Punjab's law-and-order record under the microscope

The post landed as part of a sustained Congress offensive on Punjab's crime environment. Pilot cited daylight killings, extortion incidents, and the easy availability of weapons across the state as evidence of systemic failure by the AAP administration, which swept to power in the 2022 Punjab assembly elections on a manifesto that explicitly promised tougher action on crime, drugs and policing reform.

Since 2022, Congress legislators and senior leaders have repeatedly invoked law-and-order data to challenge the AAP government's performance — an accountability line that tends to sharpen after high-profile crimes. Pilot's post, tagged to multiple Punjab Congress leaders including Partap Singh Bajwa, Charanjit Singh Channi and others, signals a coordinated push rather than an isolated comment.

With the SHO's alleged FBI link still unresolved and the victim's family awaiting justice nearly nine months after the killing, the pressure on Punjab Police and the state government to respond is now public and on the record.