Anti-drug activist Parvinder Jhota shot dead in Mansa while confronting a chemist

Parvinder Singh Jhota, an anti-drug activist known across Punjab’s Malwa belt for confronting people he accused of selling drugs, was shot dead inside a chemist’s shop in Mansa on Tuesday morning. He was livestreaming an argument with the shop owner when the man opened fire.

Police are searching for the owner, Ashwani Kumar. Four of Jhota’s companions, Kulwinder Singh, Gobind Singh, Baltej Singh and a man named Happy, were wounded as the shooter chased the group out of the shop, still firing.

Four minutes of argument, then shots

A video of nearly six minutes shows Jhota and his associates questioning the shopkeeper about the alleged sale of drugs to an elderly man, demanding the shop’s CCTV footage and asking why he carried a pistol. Just before the shooting, Jhota can be heard daring him: “Kadh le pistol, fire maar” (Take out your pistol and fire). After about four minutes of argument, the shopkeeper made a phone call and fired.

Jhota, 45, was hit three times, twice in the abdomen and once in the right thigh. Dr Gurmail Singh, senior medical officer at Mansa Civil Hospital, said one bullet pierced his liver.

“The police have arrested the person who allegedly helped main accused Ashwani flee after the murder,” said Harjeet Singh, Deputy Inspector General of the Bathinda Range. Members of the accused’s family have been detained. “It appears a licensed weapon was used in the murder,” the DIG added, and said the killing appeared to stem from an old personal rivalry.

The two men had history. In July 2023, Jhota’s supporters allegedly paraded Ashwani through a market wearing a garland of shoes after accusing him of selling banned capsules. Police booked Ashwani on Jhota’s complaint, and later booked Jhota for taking the law into his own hands.

A town shuts down

Mansa closed its shops on Tuesday. Protesters led by Lakha Sidhana and Bhana Sidhu blocked the Barnala-Sirsa road at Tinkoni Chowk, near the Deputy Commissioner’s residence, and some private schools sent children home. Protesters and Nihangs also broke into the chemist’s shop and vandalised it. A joint action committee has called a Punjab bandh for Thursday and wants the Chief Minister to resign, a CBI inquiry and a post-mortem by a panel from PGIMER, Chandigarh. Jhota’s father has refused to cremate his son until there is justice.

His mother sat with the protesters at Tinkoni Chowk. She said he left home on his scooter though she asked him not to go, telling her: “Keep my food ready. I will come back and eat.” She added: “He wanted to save the future of Punjab’s youth, but lost his own life.”

Balkaur Singh, father of the singer Sidhu Moosewala, who was shot dead near Mansa in 2022, said: “Mansa has suffered another huge loss. Will young people continue to die like this?”

Opposition goes after Mann

With Punjab voting in early 2027, the killing has turned into a test of the AAP government’s “Yudh Nashian Virudh” anti-drug campaign. The BJP is holding district-level protests across the state on Wednesday, and state president Kewal Singh Dhillon has written to Governor Gulab Chand Kataria seeking a CBI probe. Former state BJP chief Sunil Jakhar wrote on X: “Bhagwant Mann ji, even if you are just a paper chief minister, you still bear the responsibility toward Punjab.”

Former Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu climbed the hospital’s main gate after being refused entry, met the injured and said: “Punjab is in the grip of fear and lawlessness.” He later said in a Facebook Live that police had detained him.

Mann has told police to speed up the investigation. He has called the SSPs, SDMs and DSPs of every district to a day-long review of the drug campaign and law and order at the Punjab Police Academy in Phillaur on 16 October.