Chandigarh, 28 April, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Former Deputy Chief Minister and Member of Parliament Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa today issued a scathing indictment of both the Punjab government and the Central government over the attempted blast on the Rajpura-Shambhu railway track — the second major explosion attempt in the state within a span of just three months.
Describing the incident as deeply alarming and utterly shameful, Randhawa warned that Punjab stands at a dangerous crossroads, and that anti-national forces are making calculated, deliberate attempts to push the state back into the dark, bloodsoaked chapter of terrorism it once endured at enormous cost.
“The Rajpura-Shambhu railway track is one of the busiest and most strategically critical rail corridors in the country. Had the blast succeeded, we would have been mourning hundreds of innocent deaths today. This was not a random act of mischief — this was a sophisticated, planned strike at the heart of Punjab’s stability,” Randhawa said, his words carrying the weight of both outrage and grave concern.
Randhawa tore into the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government for its conspicuous failure to provide any credible accountability in the wake of the first blast, let alone institute meaningful preventive measures that could have pre-empted this second attempt. “What action did the government take after the first blast? What information was shared with the public? What structural reforms were made to prevent a recurrence? The answer is nothing — absolutely nothing. And today we are paying the price for that criminal negligence,” he thundered.
He demanded that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) immediately launch a comprehensive, coordinated inquiry encompassing the Rajpura-Shambhu blast alongside the Gurdaspur incident, the Moad blast, and the serial bomb attacks on police stations across Punjab.
“These incidents cannot be treated as isolated events. There is a thread connecting them, a network sustaining them, and a hand directing them. The NIA must connect these dots without delay, expose the masterminds, and ensure that those responsible face the full, unsparing force of the law,” Randhawa asserted.
Randhawa raised pointed questions over the reported links between the deceased accused in the Rajpura-Shambhu blast and the party of jailed MP Amritpal Singh.
“This connection is not incidental — it demands thorough, unflinching scrutiny. If there is political patronage behind terrorism, if there is ideological cover being provided to those who plant bombs on railway tracks used by lakhs of ordinary citizens, then this nation deserves to know. Every individual implicated, regardless of political affiliation or protection, must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he stated emphatically.
He underscored that the brazen resurgence of gangsterism in Punjab is no longer merely a law and order issue — it has decisively crossed into the territory of national security. “When gangsters operate with impunity, when they direct criminal enterprises from behind prison walls, when explosives cross international borders through the skies — we are no longer talking about Punjab’s problem alone. This is India’s problem.”
In one of his most damning indictments, Randhawa accused Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his government of actively colluding with gangsters rather than confronting them. “The AAP government has done neither — it has neither acted against these gangsters nor engaged with them to bring them to account. Instead, it has quietly shielded them, emboldened them, and allowed them to run full-scale criminal operations from within Punjab’s prisons,” he charged.
Randhawa revealed that he had personally furnished specific details of mobile phones being operated by gangsters from inside jails to the Central government, the Punjab government, and DGP Gaurav Yadav — and yet not a single number has been blocked to date. “This is not incompetence. This is complicity. There is no other explanation for why verified intelligence is ignored and criminals are allowed to orchestrate violence from their prison cells with complete impunity.”
“ DGP Must Serve Punjab, Not Political Masters” Randhawa also turned his sights on Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav, whom he accused of functioning as an instrument of CM Bhagwant Mann and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal rather than as an independent, duty-bound officer of the state. “The DGP was once a capable and respected officer. But the government has compromised him entirely. He must remember that he has worn the uniform of Punjab’s service — and it is to Punjab’s people that his ultimate loyalty must belong, not to those who hold political office,” Randhawa said pointedly.
Randhawa was equally unsparing in his criticism of the Central government, reminding it that the BSF controls a 50-kilometre stretch of Punjab’s international border — and that this responsibility comes with non-negotiable obligations. “Pakistan has never abandoned its mission to destabilise India.
Drones are being used with alarming regularity to smuggle explosives, weapons, and narcotics across the border. And what is the Central government’s response? No radar systems, inadequate surveillance, insufficient deployment — a security architecture so porous that the enemies of this nation have simply stopped fearing it,” he said with sharp contempt.
He demanded that the paramilitary forces currently assigned as personal security to BJP Members of Parliament be redeployed to strengthen border security where they are genuinely needed. “It is a grotesque misuse of national security resources to deploy paramilitary personnel as political escorts for BJP MPs while our borders remain vulnerable. The people of this country will never forgive those who treat their security as a political convenience,” Randhawa declared.
Concluding his statement, Randhawa issued a direct challenge to the Punjab government to come before the public and answer: Who is sheltering the gangsters? Why are drugs being sold within Punjab’s prisons? Who is responsible for the Moad blast, and what became of that investigation? Why has the state’s liquor policy become a cover for organised criminality?
“Punjab has bled before. Punjab has buried its sons before. Punjab has rebuilt itself from the ruins of terrorism before. But that resilience is not a license for governments to be negligent, indifferent, or complicit. The people of Punjab are watching — and they will hold every single person responsible to account,” he warned.
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