Stepping up their efforts to protect youth along the border belt from drug abuse and criminal exploitation, the Amritsar Rural Police have launched a community outreach drive in collaboration with gurdwaras to caution parents and teenagers.
Intelligence and recent investigations revealed that criminal networks were able to lure impressionable youth with incentives like mobile phones, motorcycles, financial aid or promises of foreign travel, according to police. The police plan to expand the programme to public intersections, schools and local youth clubs using public address systems ahead of upcoming festive gatherings. Through this campaign, police aim to encourage parents and village elders, including panchs and sarpanchs, to closely monitor behavioural changes in youngsters. Among them four were juveniles. Six radicalised youths were arrested after being enticed with promises of substantial financial rewards by an ISI-backed foreign handler to conduct reconnaissance, hurl hand grenades and record video footage of the incident.
Launched nearly 10 days ago, the drive has already covered several border villages in the Ramdas and Attari sectors. Speaking on the initiative, Amritsar Rural senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kanwalpreet Singh Chahal said the campaign specifically targeted teenagers aged 16-17. On August 4, 2026, the Amritsar commissionerate police busted two ISI-backed cross-border terror modules with the arrest of nine individuals. Earlier, on April 13, Punjab Police solved the grenade attack on the Bhindi Saida police station, which occurred on the night of March 29.
“With the pervasive influence of social media and easy access to instructional content online, parents often remain unaware of their children’s activities and peer group,” he said.
