Chandigarh: Describing the attempted blast on the Rajpura-Shambhu railway track as deeply alarming and utterly shameful, Congress leader and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Tuesday lambasted both the Punjab government and the Centre.
The former deputy chief minister of Punjab said, '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 pointed out that this was the second major explosion attempt in the state within a span of just three months. Accusing the AAP-led government of 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, the senior leader said, '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.'
The parliamentarian demanded that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) immediately launch a comprehensive, coordinated inquiry encompassing the Rajpura-Shambhu blast alongside the Gurdaspur incident, the Maur 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,' he added.
Referring to the reported links between the deceased accused in the Rajpura-Shambhu blast and the party of jailed MP Amritpal Singh, Randhawa stated, '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.'
The Congress leader further said, '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.'
Randhawa claimed 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 had been blocked to date. He said, '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.'
Randhawa accused DGP Gaurav Yadav 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,' he said.
Pointing out that the BSF controlled a 50-kilometre stretch of Punjab's international border and that this responsibility comes with non-negotiable obligations, Randhawa stated, '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.' He said the security architecture was so porous that the enemies of this nation have simply stopped fearing it. The senior leader 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.
