This generation would not know about Operation Woodrose. Operation Woodrose was a large-scale “combing operation” carried out by the Indian Army throughout Punjab in the months following Operation Blue Star (June to September 1984). It was also called a “mopping-up” mission. The aim was to prevent any large-scale protest and to clear “militant elements” primarily from rural areas and search for illegal weapons from the millitants. In those months, troops surrounded villages at dawn and conducted house-to-house raids. It was a time of fear, pain, and deep mistrust — but also proof that when the State decides to act, it can act with full force. This operation came with its controversies and human rights violations. I will stand corrected if someone has more deep information into this operation.
Today, Punjab again stands on the edge of a different kind of war — not for a rebellion or militancy, but of gangs, drugs, guns, and greed.
No day passes without a headline about bullets fired, murders, extortion calls, drone droppings, or seizures of arms and narcotics. Every morning, Punjab bleeds in print.
Drugs and illegal arms are now deeply intertwined. With every consignment of drugs comes a sophisticated pistol to protect it. Every drone that drops heroin also carries ammunition.
Each packet of powder is guarded by the metal; drugs feeding guns, guns protecting drugs.
Since time immemorial, Criminals have always existed and they will continue to exist. But now crime in Punjab has become highly organized like a corporate company. That is the cause of worry and concern. In the “Company” there are shareholders; few politicians, some police officials, and big gangsters and a workforce of sharp shooters henchmen, extortionists, and drug peddlers on ground. Everybody gets their profit as per their shareholding in the “Company”. It is a very well managed, well organised, very strong “company” which is very difficult to dismantle; rather it is getting stronger and modernised day by day. Now this “Company” is an MNC with many overseas branches.
Even the strongest CM expresses inability.
The loss belongs to Punjab’s youth, its mothers, its conscience, its image
Recent cases tell the story. In SAS Nagar, police arrested four men from the Papla Gujjar gang, recovering pistols, cash and vehicles. In Amritsar, seven accused, including a 17-year-old boy, were caught with 15 pistols linked to handlers across the border. And in Jagraon, a kabaddi player was shot dead in broad daylight, right outside the SSP’s office. If this can happen outside a police building, what safety do ordinary citizens have?
Former CM Captain Amarinder Singh said recently that “gangsters are roaming freely in Punjab.” Looking at the facts, it’s hard to disagree.
Is former Member of Punjab Public Service Commission
A farmer and keen observer of current affairs
The ISI, the parent “Coompany” has changed its method. It no longer sends terrorists; it sends drones. Punjab’s own gangs pick up the payloads from the given GPS Coordinates, sell the drugs, and use and keep the guns. Every “breakthrough” recovery by police only shows how deeply this network has spread.
Punjab Police still has brave officers, but the system looks tired and tangled in politics.
There are honest cops and some corrupt ones. There are real raids and too many press conferences. Politics, meanwhile, plays its dirtiest role; protecting the same criminals it publicly condemns.
Under Akali rule, gangs grew under shelter. Under Congress, others took their place.
Under AAP, the same cycle continues. Every government promises to clean Punjab; every term, the dirt gets deeper.
Once, there was Operation Woodrose.
Maybe now Punjab needs a new one, to comb flush out illegal arms, break drug cartels, and dismantle the gangster- politician nexus. We can call this a deep cleaning exercise. A clean, legal, and fearless campaign. Call it Operation Clean Punjab or Woodrose-II — but it must begin before Punjab loses itself completely.
Punjab’s soil once gave the world saints and soldiers. Now it gives funerals of young men lost to drugs and bullets.
Do we need more speeches and press conferences or we need hard action.