Operation Hard Ball Is A Wake-Up Call For AAP
Punjab did not need the FBI to know that its gangsters operate from abroad and from jails. Every trader, transporter, builder, NRI family and small businessman knows this bitter truth. Extortion calls come from foreign numbers. Threats are issued from jails. Shootings are arranged locally. Money is collected silently. Fear travels faster than the police.
What is new, and far more shameful, is that the FBI and the United States Department of Justice have now placed Punjab’s gangster ecosystem inside an international organised-crime investigation.
The Tribune has reported that the FBI has accused local Punjab Police SHO Gurinderjit Singh Nagra of being linked to an alleged $400,000 extortion attempt against a family in the United States. The allegation is part of Operation Hard Ball, a major US-led crackdown on India-linked transnational organised crime groups.
This is not a small news!
What is Operation Hard Ball?
In simple words, it is an FBI and US Department of Justice operation against India-linked gangs operating across the US, Canada and Europe. It has led to 24 arrests and three indictments against 37 accused persons, allegedly linked to organised-crime networks involved in extortion, shootings, drugs, firearms and targeted killings. The DOJ says cocaine, heroin, cash and weapons were also seized.
Let one legal caveat be stated clearly. An indictment is an allegation, not a conviction. Every accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But governance cannot hide behind courtroom technicalities. When a local Punjab SHO is named in connection with an international organised-crime probe, it is not merely a legal issue. It is a political and administrative indictment.
This is not ordinary crime. This is organised crime. And organised crime does not survive on guns alone. It survives on police leaks, political shelter, jail networks, money channels, local fear and administrative silence.
The real question is unavoidable: can such organised crime happen without political or administrative protection?
This must not be dismissed as opposition rhetoric. It is now a governance question. If gangsters sitting in jails or abroad can direct extortion, arrange shooters, threaten families, influence local cases and build overseas networks, then someone inside the system is enabling them. Someone is looking away. Someone is protecting them. Someone is earning from fear.
Punjab knows what is happening. Extortion rackets, firing incidents, killings and threats have become routine. The level of fear is now so high that many people do not even lodge complaints. The fear is simple: after complaint, they may become the next target. Worse, the common whisper across the state is that victims are sometimes advised, “Koi na, je 50 lakh mangde ne, ta 25 lakh de ke kam khatam karo.” If this is how people feel about the system, then the crisis is not only of crime. It is a collapse of State authority.
AAP has done welfare politics aggressively. Free power, mohalla clinics, schools, sarpanch honorarium and women-centric schemes have created a political narrative. These people-centric measures cannot be dismissed. They matter. They touch households.
But I had written way back in December 2025 that law and order would become the Achilles heel of the AAP government in Punjab. Today, this FBI-linked news has proved that warning brutally correct.
Freebies cannot compensate for fear. Welfare cannot compensate for extortion. A government may win applause for subsidies, but it loses moral authority if citizens believe that gangsters are stronger than the State.
The government often points to arrests, encounters and anti-gangster operations. But the real issue is no longer how many boys were arrested. The real issue is: who protects the network?
Punjab does not merely need arrests. Punjab needs a clean-up.
The State must order a time-bound independent probe into the Punjab link of Operation Hard Ball. The inquiry must not stop at one SHO of Punjab Police. It must examine police postings, jail access, mobile phone use in prisons, call records, political links, money trails, benami properties and protection networks. Punjab Police Officers who help gangsters must be dismissed and prosecuted. Politicians, middlemen and police personnel who acted as shields must be exposed.
This is also why the current debate around the film Satluj is relevant. The film has reopened memories of Punjab’s dark phase and was removed from ZEE5 in India soon after release. History cannot be banned. But history must also not be repeated.
What has changed from 1995 to 2026?
The Punjab of 1995 was a Punjab of fear, silence, extortion, police excesses, militant violence and broken trust between citizen and State. Today’s Punjab is the same. Once fear enters homes, once people stop trusting police stations, once criminals begin using the State machinery itself as a weapon, the slide becomes frightening. If an SHO is an extortionist, who will people approach for justice?
This is a wake-up call for the government and the police leadership. Clean up, or the shame will be remembered like the shame of the 1995 era.
References
- The Tribune: FBI accuses Punjab cop of $400,000 extortion bid, links him to US gang probe
- US Department of Justice: International crackdown on India-based organised crime gangs results in 24 arrests
- The Tribune: US charges Lawrence Bishnoi, Goldy Brar with Hardeep Nijjar’s killing in Canada
- The Tribune: 4 members of gang involved in extortion activities held, Punjab Police
- NDTV: Satluj removed from ZEE5 in India two days after release
Gurpartap Singh Mann, a former Member of Punjab Public Service Commission (2018–2024) and an ex-Chief General Manager of Punjab Infrastructure Development Board wherein he played a key role in infrastructure development through Private Public Partnerships.
