Chandigarh: Punjab Police, in their daily report dated Tuesday, 3 November, said teams conducted 477 raids on Day 287 of the 'Gangstran Te Vaar' campaign at identified and mapped locations linked to gangster associates across the state, arresting 151 people with five weapons — taking total arrests since the campaign's launch to 82,337, according to the police's own release.
Source: Bright Punjab Express (Punjab Police release)
Police said preventive action was also taken against 136 persons that day, and three proclaimed offenders were arrested. According to the release, the campaign was launched by Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav on 20 January 2026, and district teams are operating in coordination with the Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) Punjab. Police repeated the anti-gangster helpline number 93946-93946 for anonymous tips. The Punjabi report of the same release carried by Malwa News matches the same totals: 477 raids, 151 arrests, five weapons and 82,337 cumulative arrests.
Source: Malwa News
The same release carried the day's figures for the anti-drug drive: on Day 612 of 'Yudh Nashian Virudh', 83 drug smugglers were arrested and 2.1 kg of heroin, 10 kg of poppy husk and 325 intoxicant pills were recovered from their possession — taking cumulative drug-smuggler arrests to 90,733 in 612 days, police said. Police added that 27 persons were persuaded to undergo de-addiction and rehabilitation treatment that day.
The last such tally reported by Awaaz Punjab was Day 284, on 31 October, when police reported 475 raids and total 'Gangstran Te Vaar' arrests of 81,837, with the drug drive's reported total at 89,774 on Day 609 — so the police-reported cumulative figures have risen by 500 gangster-drive arrests and 959 drug-drive arrests since then.
To be clear: every figure in this story is Punjab Police's own reported number from its official daily release — a police account of arrests and seizures, not a court finding, and not independently audited. The reports reviewed carried no opposition or independent reaction, and none has been added.
What happens next: the two drives are the government's most visible law-and-order programmes, and ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections these daily tallies will remain the main evidence the government cites for its drugs and gangster claims — figures the opposition has repeatedly questioned in the past, though it had issued no statement on this specific report at the time of writing.