The Chief Minister's Office of Punjab announced on Saturday, June 6, 2026 that the state's ongoing anti-gangster drive, 'Gangsteran Te Vaar', has entered its 136th day, with Punjab Police conducting 548 raids at identified and mapped locations linked to associates of gangsters across the state.

Context

According to the official post, police teams arrested individuals along with one weapon during the latest round of operations, pushing the campaign's cumulative arrest tally to 34,212 since its launch. The raids targeted locations that had been pre-identified and mapped in advance, reflecting a data-driven approach to disrupting gangster networks.

The campaign, whose name translates from Punjabi as 'Gangsteran Te Vaar' ('Strike on Gangsters'), has become a flagship law-and-order initiative of the Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party government, which came to power in March 2022 on a platform that included promises of tackling organised crime and drug networks in the state.

Policy Backdrop

Punjab has long grappled with organised crime syndicates whose activities are often intertwined with cross-border smuggling networks and local political economies. Following the 2022 state elections, the new government announced a sustained intensification of police action against drug networks and gangster syndicates, moving away from episodic crackdowns toward continuous, mapped enforcement.

The 'Gangsteran Te Vaar' campaign represents that shift — deploying intelligence-led targeting of associates and support networks, rather than only pursuing named gang leaders. The use of mapped locations signals coordination between district police units and state-level intelligence inputs.

Stakeholders and Impact

For Punjab's residents, particularly those in districts with documented histories of gang-linked extortion and violence, sustained raids and arrests are intended to disrupt the operational capacity of criminal networks. A cumulative figure of 34,212 arrests over 136 days represents an average of roughly 251 arrests per day across the state.

Punjab Police personnel conducting these operations face operational pressures to maintain the tempo of a campaign now well into its fourth month. Civil liberties observers and legal aid groups have, in past similar drives across Indian states, raised questions about the quality of arrests and adherence to due process — a dimension that state authorities will need to address as the campaign extends further.

What's Next

The Chief Minister's Office has not announced an end date for the campaign, suggesting it will continue as an open-ended enforcement drive. Periodic disclosures of raid counts and arrest tallies are likely to continue as the government uses these figures to demonstrate law-and-order progress ahead of future electoral cycles.

Independent assessment of the campaign's impact on extortion rates, homicide figures, and gang-linked incidents in Punjab will be the real measure of its effectiveness — data that state authorities and civil society groups are expected to scrutinise in the months ahead.