Bathinda (Gurpreet Singh) — In a gruesome incident underscoring escalating rural violence, a 62-year-old former village sarpanch was hacked to death with an axe in Punjab’s Bathinda district on Sunday. The victim, identified as Jagtar Singh Tara, a resident of Phus Mandi village, was killed inside a liquor vend where he had stopped to make a purchase. The assault marks the second violent killing of an erstwhile village head in the state in quick succession, following the recent fatal shooting of former sarpanch Navtej Singh in Ludhiana district.
According to preliminary police reports, the suspect, identified as Gurbakhsh Singh from the same village, was already waiting at the liquor vend when Jagtar Singh arrived. The assailant struck the victim on the head with an axe, killing him on the spot. Local police and forensic units arrived at the scene shortly after receiving the alert to cordon off the area and gather evidence.
Superintendent of Police (City) Ashwant Singh confirmed that law enforcement teams took immediate action, arresting the suspect and recovering the weapon used in the crime. Initial findings point to a long-standing personal rivalry between the two men as the primary motive behind the fatal attack. Authorities stated that an intensive interrogation is underway to establish the exact sequence of events, while forensic analyses and formal case registrations proceed.
