Punjab's anti-gangster task force to get additional manpower; to set up units across state

PTI

Chandigarh, July 24

The Anti-Gangster Task Force of the Punjab Police will get additional manpower as it seeks to set up its units at the range level in the state. The AGTF, which was constituted to eradicate gangsters' network from the state, will get 250 additional people, said AGTF chief Pramod Ban.

“We will set up our units at each range level which will be operational units,” Ban told PTI here. “We are in the process of selecting people across the state,” said Ban, who is an additional director general of police (ADGP) rank officer.

The state is divided into eight ranges-Patiala range, Bathinda range, Ferozepur range, Ludhiana range, Jalandhar range, Border range, Rupnagar range and Faridkot range. These ranges are headed by the Inspector General rank officers.

The AGTF along with the district police had gunned down gangsters Jagroop Singh Roopa and Manpreet Singh alias Mannu Kusa in a five-hour long operation in a village near the India-Pakistan border in Amritsar on July 20.

Both Roopa and Kusa were allegedly involved in the murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala.

While the two gangsters were killed and three others arrested earlier, Deepak Mundi, the sixth shooter in the Sidhu Moosewala murder case, is still at large.

Ban said the efforts were on to nab Mundi. “We are after him,” he said.

Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moosewala, was shot dead in Punjab's Mansa district on May 29.

To wipe out gangsters' network, a dedicated anti-gangster task force (AGTF) was set up on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in April.

The AGTF was authorised to use the services of State Special Operation Cells (SSOCs) set up in Mohali, Amritsar, and Fazilka, in addition to the services offered by the 361 police stations across the state.

A few days ago, Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav had said that eliminating the gangster culture and scourge of drug menace was the top priorities of the police.  

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