Jalandhar: The killing of the 42-year-old anti-drugs activist Parvinder Singh Jhota by a medical store owner in Mansa district last week has rippled into outpourings of outrage and anger.Riding on the wave of protests against the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party government, Union home minister Amit Shah is also all set to visit Mansa and meet Jhota’s family today, October 20. Shah will be visiting the families of anti-drug activists who recently lost their lives in Gurdaspur and Sangrur districts too.People tore down of hoardings of CM Mann and his government’s welfare schemes, and planned to hand ‘condemnation letters’ to 92 MLAs of the AAP government.The protest led by the Shaheed Bhai Parvinder Singh Jhota Insaaf Morcha at Mansa saw the participation of civil society members including locals, farmer unions, village panchayats, Sikh organisations, youth bodies, social groups, NGOs and ex-servicemen from the region. Jhota’s father Bheem Singh is a retired soldier.Jhota was a popular anti-drugs activist. His killer, a medical store owner Ashwani Kumar, was arrested from Rajasthan. Jhota’s family have not yet cremated him, and have held fast to the demand that CM Mann and Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav resign.CM Mann has now recommended a CBI probe in Jhota’s murder case – one of his family’s major demands.https://cms.thewire.in/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WhatsApp-Video-2026-10-17-at-19.37.54.mp4Video: Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Punjab, members tearing the flex board of Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann at Mehmuana village in Faridkot district.Amit Shah’s visitInitially, Jhota’s father Bheem Singh had welcomed Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit.However, many civil society members along with those of the Shaheed Bhai Parvinder Singh Jhota Insaaf Morcha opposed the decision. Many have highlighted how 50 kilometres of the India-Pakistan border – a known site of drug influx – is controlled by the Border Security Force and the Union home ministry.“The BJP has governments in Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Where are the drugs coming from? Are we making drugs in Punjab?” a morcha member has asked.On October 19, Bheem Singh said that his family and supporters will not oppose Amit Shah’s visit. “No one will oppose the union home minister’s visit, but we expect justice in my son’s case,” he added.Amit Shah, during his rally in Jalandhar on September 20, had announced that the BJP would be contesting the upcoming Punjab assembly election of 2027 solely on the issue of drugs.Like his predecessors, the Union home minister also announced that the saffron party would wipe out drugs from Punjab within two years. “We will wipe out drugs from Punjab by December 2029. Give us a chance. If voted to power in the next assembly elections, we will put every drug peddler behind bars, and Punjab would be a drug free state,” he had said.‘Let police file FIRs’Terming ‘Yudh Nasheya Virudh’ – the anti-drug campaign launched by Mann’s government in March , 2025 – a fake and failed campaign, Manga Singh Azad, the state president of the left youth group Naujawan Bharat Sabha said that Mann and his AAP government were putting up hoardings by wasting public money.Mann’s faces in many of the newly-installed wall-size hoardings saying ‘Imaandar CM’ – sincere chief minister – have been blackened. In some, members have struck off ‘imaandar’ and replaced it with ‘baiman‘ – dishonest, Azad said. Punjab Police has registered an FIR against the accused at Faridkot in the last case.“Let them register FIRs, we will continue to remove their posters and expose them,” he said.Also read: An Anti-Drugs Activist’s Murder in Broad Daylight Has Serious Political Implications“A young anti-drugs activist was killed in broad daylight and CM Mann, instead of reaching out to the bereaved family, is concerned about publicity. AAP will face more public wrath in the coming days,” he told The Wire.An FIR under section 4 of Punjab Prevention of Damage to Public and Private Property Act 2014 and section 324(4) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023 have been registered against Naunihal Singh and Harveer Kaur Gandal of the Punjab Student Union and Sukhdeep Singh Bham from Faridkot.Jhota’s father Bheem Singh also challenged the AAP government to lodge an FIR against him. He said, “I will tear the hoardings of AAP in Mansa. I challenge CM Mann to lodge an FIR against me too. Until the FIRs are not cancelled, our protest will continue.”A video of Harveer Kaur Gander, the district president of Punjab Students Union arguing with Faridkot Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Tarlochan Singh was also viral on social media. In the video, the DSP on duty was seen stopping Harveer and other youths from tearing down hoardings.Gander said, “We are not afraid of FIRs and the intimidating tactics of the AAP government.”https://cms.thewire.in/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WhatsApp-Video-2026-10-17-at-19.37.55.mp4Video: Naujawan Bharat Sabha members removing the hoarding of AAP government leaders in Faridkot district.‘Letters of condemnation’On October 19, members of the Shaheed Bhai Parvinder Singh Jhota Insaaf Morcha, farmer organisations and civil society gathered outside the residences of all the 92 MLAs of AAP government in Punjab to hand over ‘letters of condemnation’ to them.In the condemnation letter, the morcha members led by Bheem Singh stated:“You reached the assembly with people’s votes. They had sent you as their voice – not to give shelter to drug peddlers and to maintain silence in front of those who were shielding them. An MLA who despite the gruesome killing of an anti-drug activist cannot hold his government accountable, can’t be a people’s representative. We condemn this silence of yours.”The letter concluded with a question, “Are you standing with the family of the martyr and those in drug-affected Punjab or with the drug suppliers and their saviours?”“Make your stand clear publicly,” they said while demanding that their demands be accepted in the assembly with immediate effect. “If you remain quiet even now, people from Punjab would register your silence as a crime in history. And our protest would intensify further,” the condemnation letter read.Among demands other than the CBI probe is that Jhota’s postmortem be conducted at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMER) Chandigarh. The morcha also demanded strictest punishment to the accused through a fast-track court.Also read: Amritpal Singh’s Anti-Drugs Crusade Could Clinch the Khadoor Sahib ElectionNone of the AAP MLAs and ministers came out of their residences to receive the condemnation letters.A large posse of police was deployed outside the houses of the legislators. Clashes between civil society members and the police were reported from many places including at CM Mann’s home turf Sangrur, along with Ropar, Patiala and Zira in Ferozepur.Agitated protestors pasted copies of the condemnation letters outside the house of Punjab assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhawan.The only exception was the suspended AAP MLA from the Maur constituency in Bathinda, Sukhveer Singh Maiserkhana. Maiserkhana received the condemnation letter and accepted his party’s mistake.AAP had expelled Maiserkhana for anti-party activities on October 3, after he raised voice against shortage of teachers at government schools in his constituency. Maiserkhana was the only MLA in Punjab whose children are studying in a government school.In solidarity with the ongoing protest in Mansa, the farmers’ body BKU Ekta (Ugrahan) has suggested measures to ensure justice.Terming AAP’s ‘Yudh Nasheya Virudh’ as ‘Yudh Loka Virudh (war against people),’ BKU Ekta (Ugrahan) led by its president Joginder Singh Ugrahan said that the government should stop this campaign with immediate effect and work to expose the nexus of drug suppliers. “Seize the drug money from the accused and hand it over to those who lost their lives at the hands of such drug lords,” Ugrahan said.The BKU Ekta (Ugrahan) leaders said that apart from demanding exemplary punishment to the killers of Jhota, the protest was also about controlling the menace of drugs. “A compensation of Rs 2 crore should be given to the family of Jhota,” they said.They also asked the AAP government to stop targeting the victims of drugs abuse and form a policy for their rehabilitation.Commenting on AAP’s move to lodge FIRs against those tearing down its welfare scheme posters, political commentator Malwinderjit Singh Mali said that AAP was playing with fire. “AAP is adopting a wrong approach. Instead of handling this crisis with patience, CM Mann led AAP government was spreading anarchy in the state,” he said.“The AAP government was handling the drugs issue as a law-and-order problem whereas it was a social, political and economic issue. AAP is facing people’s anger, but instead of understanding this, they are busy in its publicity,” he said.