Punjab, historically one of India’s most prosperous and welcoming states, has long relied on migrant labour from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to power its agriculture, industry, and construction sectors. With over 18 lakh (1.8 million) migrant workers estimated to be working across the state at any given time, these workers have become, as industrialists openly acknowledge, the economic backbone of Punjab.
But in recent years and dramatically since 2024, a series of violent, disturbing crimes allegedly committed by undocumented or unverified migrants has shattered the social fabric in many communities, triggering protests, panchayat resolutions, vigilante threats, and a fierce public debate about identity verification, public safety, and the state’s accountability toward its own residents.
The crimes are not isolated. They form a pattern: men without valid identification papers arrive from other states, commit serious offences including sexual assault, murder, and extortion and then flee before law enforcement can track them. Local women report feeling increasingly unsafe in their own neighbourhoods as groups of men drink openly on street corners. Families live in fear. And the political response has been slow, inconsistent, and in many cases, driven more by vote-bank calculations than genuine concern for residents’ safety.
Timeline of Major Documented Incidents
2004 — Kapurthala/Jalandhar: Serial Murders of Migrant Children (Darbara Singh Case)
While this case involved a local Punjabi man targeting children of migrant families, it set a chilling precedent of impunity and gaps in the identification and monitoring system for vulnerable populations. Over seven months from April to October 2004, 23 children of non-Punjabi migrant workers were abducted in Jalandhar city. Many were sexually assaulted; 17 were killed. The perpetrator deliberately targeted migrant children because he knew their families had little political influence or documentation to press for swift justice. He told police after his arrest that he had no remorse for killing children of migrant laborers. Wikipedia The case exposed the severe vulnerability of undocumented migrant families who lived outside the protection of formal state systems.
September 9, 2025 Hoshiarpur: Rape and Murder of Five-Year-Old Boy
This single case became the flashpoint for a statewide reckoning. On September 9, a five-year-old boy named Harveer, alias Billa, was abducted from outside his house in the New Deep Nagar locality of Hoshiarpur. OpIndia
A drunk migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh named Nanke allegedly raped and murdered the boy. He was arrested within hours of the incident with the help of CCTV footage that showed him picking up the boy from outside a gurdwara on his two-wheeler. ThePrint
The accused was residing in the Subzi Mandi area of Hoshiarpur and had no verified background check conducted by either his employer or local authorities. Police noted previous cases against the accused that were also being examined. ThePrint
The public reaction was immediate and fierce. Sarpanches from around 20 villages including Chak Sadhu, Nandan, Singhpur, Bassi Bahian, Dada, Kila Baroon, Allahabad, Bilaspur, and Anandgarh held a meeting in Bajwara on September 13. They passed a resolution that panchayats would no longer attest the official documents of migrant laborers who did not possess valid identification papers from Punjab. The Federal
Panchayats in Hoshiarpur passed resolutions asking migrant workers to move to the outskirts. Skirmishes were also reported in parts of Punjab. Protests erupted across the state, with some raising slogans of “Parvasi bhajao, Punjab bachao” — send back the migrants, save Punjab. Several Nihang bodies lent their support to the protests. At least 40 village panchayats in Hoshiarpur, Bathinda, and Barnala passed similar resolutions broadly demanding that workers from other states shift to the outskirts of panchayat limits. ThePrint
Protesters raised a core grievance: “Many of them already have criminal backgrounds. The local politicians want to get their Aadhaar and voter cards made here for votes without getting any background check done.” ThePrint
September 2025 — Bathinda (Lehra Mohabbat): Attempted Murder Over Market Dispute
Residents of Lehra Mohabbat in Bathinda alleged that migrant fruit vendors attacked a Punjabi boy after he tried to haggle over prices. A case of attempt to murder was registered against the accused by Bathinda SSP Amneet Kondal. ThePrint
This incident illustrated a pattern local residents had been observing for years — minor confrontations escalating into potentially lethal violence, with the accused often having no traceable identity in Punjab’s records.
December 2024 — Punjab (Location Undisclosed): Murder and Body Burning
In December 2024, a migrant worker was killed in a drunken altercation in Punjab. The assailant set the body on fire before fleeing the scene. X The burning of the body was interpreted by investigators as a deliberate attempt to destroy forensic evidence. The fleeing of the accused — in a pattern repeatedly noted by police — was made easier by the lack of registered addresses and identity documentation for many in migrant communities.
February 2026 — Moga: Shooting of Migrant Mill Workers
The most recent documented incident of violence though in this case directed at migrants rather than by them — reflects how badly tensions have escalated. Three bike-borne men, one of whom fired at a group of migrant laborers in Khosa Jalal village in Moga, injured a Bihar laborer named Ashok Kumar in his leg. ThePrint While this was retaliatory violence against migrants, the incident was the culmination of months of hostility that began after the rape and murder of the five-year-old boy in Hoshiarpur the previous September. ThePrint
The Pattern: No ID, Commit Crime, Flee
One of the most consistent and alarming features of crimes allegedly committed by certain migrants is the exploitation of Punjab’s identification gap. A large number of migrant workers enter the state without Punjab-issued identity documents. Some use fraudulently attested Aadhaar cards registered to temporary addresses. Many landlords, under pressure or for profit, do not report their tenants to authorities.
Following the murder of a child allegedly by an out-of-state migrant, police formed teams to verify migrants’ identities and required landlords to submit tenant details, preparing a proforma to record Aadhaar and other documents, and warning of action on criminal backgrounds. TaxTMI
The problem, however, runs deeper. As Dr. Kaur, a criminologist cited in reporting, noted: “What needs to be really strengthened is the system of checking the antecedents of those migrating into Punjab for work. The state cannot be looked upon as a safe haven for criminals. Those persons whose antecedents are shady should be sent back.” ThePrint
She also pointed directly at the political enablement of the problem: politicians “have to stop succumbing to getting voter and Aadhaar cards made in bulk without checks.” ThePrint She added that “in cities, migrants are encouraged by politicians to settle permanently so that they can be used as vote banks.” ThePrint
Public Drinking and Harassment of Women
Beyond violent crime, a persistent grievance voiced by local residents — particularly women — is the open consumption of alcohol by groups of migrant men on street corners, in market areas, and near schools and gurdwaras. Women in multiple districts have reported feeling unsafe walking through localities where such gatherings occur regularly, citing harassment, lewd comments, and intimidation.
Local panchayats and women’s groups have brought this issue repeatedly to the attention of district administrations, but enforcement has been inconsistent. The absence of identity records for many of those involved makes even basic policing difficult: when police attempt to act, those without documentation often cannot be traced after they disperse.
This has created a climate of fear for women in affected localities not only about violent assault, but about the erosion of public space and freedom of movement that had previously been taken for granted.
Extortion and Criminal Networks
Punjab Police have also flagged the involvement of some migrants particularly those with existing criminal records from UP and Bihar in extortion networks operating within migrant labor communities themselves. Landlords who rent to migrant workers, local shop owners near migrant settlements, and even other workers have reported demands for money backed by threats of violence.
The Ferozepur district police intercepted a significant heroin smuggling operation involving over 15 kg of heroin smuggled via floodwaters from Pakistan, an operation allegedly orchestrated by an inmate in Kapurthala jail, highlighting the involvement of both local and external criminal networks in the region. X Investigators noted that some inter-state migrant networks have become intertwined with Punjab’s established drug and extortion economy.
The Political and Administrative Failure
The crisis is not simply a law-and-order failure. It is, fundamentally, a political failure. For years, parties across the spectrum — AAP, Congress, and Akali Dal alike — encouraged bulk registration of migrant workers for Aadhaar and voter ID cards without background verification, in exchange for electoral loyalty. This created a population of people with valid-looking documentation but no verified criminal history checks.
Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira condemned the murder of the Hoshiarpur child but linked it to what he described as unchecked inflow of outsiders, demanding a law similar to those in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand that restrict land ownership and jobs to locals. Shiromani Akali Dal leaders called for stricter monitoring of migrants and blamed the AAP government for law-and-order lapses. The Tribune
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s response while condemning specific crimes has focused on preserving social harmony and protecting the economic contribution of migrants, cautioning repeatedly against “generalizing an entire workforce.” While this reflects a valid concern about collective punishment, critics argue it has also slowed the implementation of urgently needed verification systems.
The Demand: What Punjab’s Residents Are Asking For
Across communities, the demands from Punjab’s citizens are clear and, in the main, reasonable:
Mandatory verification: Every migrant seeking residence in Punjab must provide police-verified identity documents from their home state before being allowed to register a local address or obtain local documentation.
Landlord accountability: Landlords who fail to register tenants with local police must face legal consequences. This single measure, consistently enforced, could dramatically reduce the ability of criminals to disappear after committing crimes.
Criminal background checks: Employers whether factories, farms, or households must verify that workers do not have pending criminal cases before hiring them.
Swift prosecution: When accused persons are identified, trials must be expedited rather than allowing cases to languish for years, which has historically been the norm.
Public space enforcement: Police must actively enforce laws against public intoxication and harassment, particularly near schools, religious sites, and residential areas where women have reported feeling unsafe.
A Note on Fairness
It must be stated clearly: the overwhelming majority of Punjab’s 1.8 million migrant workers are honest, hardworking individuals who have left their families in UP and Bihar to send money home. As one factory worker told journalists after the Hoshiarpur murder: “We now live in constant fear as the hatred can easily spread beyond the city where the crime took place.” The Tribune
The demand for accountability and verification is not a demand for the expulsion of working people. It is a demand that the state fulfill its most basic obligation: to know who lives within its borders, to check whether those people have criminal histories, and to ensure that those who commit crimes cannot simply vanish into an unregistered population.
That is not discrimination. That is governance.
Punjab stands at a crossroads. The crimes documented above the rape-murder of a five-year-old child, the stabbing attacks, the drunken violence, the extortion, the harassment of women in public spaces are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a systemic failure to build and enforce a proper migrant registration and verification system, a failure enabled by decades of political opportunism and administrative neglect.
The state has both the obligation and the tools to fix this. The question is whether its leaders have the will.
This article is based on verified reports from The Print, The Tribune, The Federal, OpIndia, and National Herald India, among other sources.