Congress leader and Rajasthan (Tonk) MP Sachin Pilot, referring to the murder of Parvinder Singh Jhota, said on Jattvibeday that anti-drug activists were not safe in Punjab and that the state government had failed to safeguard their lives.Days ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s scheduled visit to Punjab, Pilot questioned the Union Home Ministry’s role in curbing drug trafficking through the porous India-Pakistan border in the wake of Jhota’s murder. “What is the Home Ministry doing?” he asked.Accompanied by Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Pargat Singh, Pilot on Jattvibeday visited the families of people affected by drugs and gangster violence during the Doaba leg of his tour. He visited the homes of slain kabaddi player Sandeep Singh Nangal Ambiyan and murdered cloth merchant Timmy Chawla in Shahkot and Nakodar, respectively.Paying floral tributes to Nangal Ambiyan at his memorial statue in his native village, Pilot said the state government had failed to protect citizens who lived in fear of retribution from gangsters and drug smugglers.Pilot said, “Sandeep Singh Nangal Ambiyan was a top-level kabaddi player from Punjab. His life was claimed by gangster violence. This cycle is not breaking in Punjab. Parvinder Singh Jhota was fighting drugs, but activists are not safe in Punjab today. Violence, extortion and daylight murders have become commonplace, while families continue to struggle. During due process and court proceedings, the state government does not ensure witness protection or provide financial assistance to families. For five years, the state government has been indulging in self-promotion and vote-bank politics. If it cannot provide protection to its own citizens, it has failed.”Asked by The Tribune about the BJP’s anti-drug campaign and its allegation that the Congress, too, had failed to curb drugs, Pilot said, “The BJP was also sharing power with the Akalis in a previous government. It cannot simply shrug off its own responsibility. Today, the BJP is in power in Delhi and holds the Home and Defence portfolios. The India-Pakistan border is porous, and drugs and ganja (sic) are coming across it. What is the Government of India doing? What is the Home Ministry doing?”Speaking about the families he had met, Pilot said, “People are still receiving extortion calls and voice messages. Everyone I have visited says they are being threatened and told not to pursue their cases. Witnesses turn hostile, and victim families are forced to step back. Timmy Chawla’s 76-year-old father told me that people still intimidate him, asking him to stop making rounds of the courts at his age. The police must stop running after political leaders and follow the law. Only then can crime be stopped in Punjab.”Punjab Congress co-in-charge Ravinder Dalvi, Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh, Shahkot MLA Hardev Singh Laddi and other Congress leaders were also present.