Punjab Police Calls Viral Uniform Order ‘Fake’ After It Sparks A Row

Punjab Police uniform order from IG Border Range Amritsar, issued after ASI Harjit Singh’s killing, had fuelled Majithia and Warring’s attack on Bhagwant Mann government but the Punjab Police has clarified that it’s fake.

North Desk Correspondent

Chandigarh, September 22

Punjab Police Uniform ‘Order’: Punjab Police issued a public denial on X Tuesday, stating that neither Police Headquarters nor any office under it had issued any advisory directing personnel to avoid wearing uniform while commuting to or from duty, or asking them to travel in civilian clothes. The force termed such messages circulating on social media “fake” and urged citizens and personnel to rely only on official channels.

The denial comes even as Opposition leaders — Shiromani Akali Dal’s Bikram Singh Majithia, Congress’s Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, and BJP’s Sunil Jakhar — have been citing both a viral audio clip and a written order to allege that the Bhagwant Mann government has left the police force fearful of criminals.

The Punjab Police Uniform ‘Order’ Being Cited

North Desk has reviewed the document being circulated alongside the audio: a letter numbered 84577-84/CR-Sub Branch, dated September 18, 2026, issued from the Office of the Inspector General of Police, Border Range, Amritsar, addressed to the SSPs of Amritsar (Rural), Batala, Gurdaspur and Pathankot.

Its opening section, on uniform and identification, states that personnel travelling to or from duty should not wear uniform while in transit and should change into uniform only after reaching their police station or post, and that weapons, badges or name tags should not be displayed openly while travelling.

The remaining nine sections cover a broader personal-security protocol for personnel: movement in pairs at duty points, advance route-sharing with control rooms, concealment of identity at checking posts, mandatory armed sentries, restrictions on phone use while on duty, randomized routes and timings, mandatory personal inspection of night checking by Gazetted Officers and SHOs, and coordination with the Anti-Gangster Task Force and Anti-Narcotics Task Force on relevant cases.

Punjab Police Uniform Order: The order is dated the same day that Assistant Sub-Inspector Harjit Singh, posted at Gate Hakiman police station in Amritsar, was shot dead. According to police accounts, Harjit Singh had left his station around 9:30 pm on September 17 for duty at Dana Mandi; he was shot at close range with a .30-bore pistol by two motorcycle-borne assailants at the Bhagtanwala grain market around 12:30 am.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said preliminary investigation indicated the attackers had followed the officer before opening fire. Harjit Singh, a resident of Tarn Taran district, was declared dead at a private hospital. Chief Minister Mann announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 crore for his family.

In another killing in Amritsar district, ASI Joga Singh was shot dead near Hamja village in the Majitha assembly segment while on his way to duty, on a scooter, in uniform. Police at the time said they were probing multiple angles, including personal enmity and road rage, alongside the possibility of a targeted attack. North Desk had reported on that killing as well.

The political charge

Punjab Police Uniform ‘Order’: Majithia, sharing the audio clip, alleged that police personnel had “reportedly been asked to wear uniforms only after reaching police stations,” and said Punjab Police — “once known for eliminating terrorism and maintaining law and order” — had been rendered “helpless” under Mann’s leadership. He called for Mann’s resignation if he could not handle the state’s law and order.

Warring separately invoked the “Rome burned while Nero played the fiddle” analogy, in Hindi, to allege Mann was cracking jokes at public events while “Punjab burns.” Jakhar, citing what he described as a police safety advisory issued against the backdrop of the killings, said criminals in Punjab “no longer fear the police” and that police instead “appear to be living in fear of gangsters and goons.”

He said officers had “reportedly been asked to wear uniforms only after reaching police stations,” and alleged that other viral audios showed police were “helpless before gangsters.” He said fear prevailed among Punjabis over the law-and-order situation, and called on Mann to resign if he could not handle the state.

However, immediately after the Punjab police clarified that it was a fake order and it had not issued any such advisory, Majithia had to face a backlash on his account with people reposting the Punjab police’s ‘fact check’ post and flaying him for sharing a ‘fake’ post and order.

Congress’s Punjab unit chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring had also weighed in, invoking the “Rome burned while Nero played the fiddle” analogy in Hindi to allege that Mann was cracking jokes at public events while “Punjab burns.”

He too faced a lot of criticism like Majithia and many posted the Punjab Police’s denial as reply to his post.

The Punjab Police later clarified and stated that this was fake as it had issued no such order. In a post on X, it said: “Such messages circulating on social media are fake and should be ignored. Citizens and police personnel are advised to rely only on official channels for authentic information.”

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