ASI shot dead near Amritsar; 3rd cop to be murdered in 3 months

AMRITSAR: A police officer was shot dead by bike-borne gunmen near Majitha town in Amritsar district early Sunday morning when he was on his way to begin his shift.ASI Joga Singh is the third policeman to be murdered in Punjab since Feb 22 when an officer and a constable were shot dead inside a police outpost in Punjab's Gurdaspur district, barely a kilometre from the Pakistan border.Joga was posted with Amritsar Police Commissionerate, said Amritsar SSP-rural Suhail Qasim Mir. Police are yet to identify his killers or a motive as his family said he had no enemies and never received any threats.The ASI was driving his scooter from Batala to Amritsar (40km) when the attackers intercepted him on the outskirts of Majitha, midway through the 40km journey on Fatehgarh Churian–Majitha road.The gunmen shot him at close range, hitting him twice — one bullet in the chest and another in the waist. ASI Joga Singh collapsed on the roadside and died before help could reach him. The attack took place around 6am when the road was relatively deserted, say police.Other motorists saw his body and alerted police. The ASI was in uniform as he lay dead on the grass. His turban had fallen off in the violence of the attack.Senior police officers rushed to the spot and sealed off the area. Forensic teams were called in to collect evidence. Some bullet shells were recovered from the scene, say police.SSP Mir said police are probing all possible angles, including personal enmity, road rage, and any other motive. CCTV footage from nearby areas is being examined to identify the attackers.After postmortem, the ASI will be cremated in his native village, Ghaniye-ke-Bangar near Batala in Gurdaspur district.Joga Singh's cousin, Harcharan Singh, later arrived on the scene and told media persons that the ASI usually travelled to Amritsar for duty in his car. However, on Sunday morning, he found a tyre punctured, so he decided to ride a scooter to work instead. It was during this commute that he was attacked.Harcharan said Joga served with the Amritsar traffic police and had never received any threats. He lived with his wife, while their two children are settled in Canada. According to the family, he had no known disputes or rivalry with anyone, making the motive behind the murder unclear.