The Punjab Police have brought back 17 gangsters from foreign countries over the past six months, something the previous governments failed to achieve in decades, Cabinet Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said on Monday. With this, the Bhagwant Mann government had sent a message that no criminal could escape the law by fleeing abroad, the minister said.Addressing a press conference, the Aam Aadmi Party leader said the extraditions were part of the “Gangstran Te Vaar” campaign. Between January 20 and November 7, the police conducted 1,61,266 raids and arrested around 2,162 proclaimed offenders.“The Punjab Police have successfully brought several gangsters back to India from different countries,” Cheema said. Prominent among those extradited were Ramanjit Singh Romi from Hong Kong; Amrit Singh from the Maldives; Prabhpreet Singh from Germany; Parminder Singh Pindi from the UAE; Sajjan Mahesh and Sukhdev Kumar, alias Manish Baidi, from Indonesia; Ajay Singh, Pawandeep Singh and Jaspreet Singh from Malaysia; and Karmbir Singh Deol from Canada.“These operations demonstrate the determination and capabilities of our police force in pursuing criminals beyond geographical boundaries,” he said.Cheema alleged that gangsters were “created and nurtured during the Akali-BJP rule and allowed to flourish under the Congress regime”. He further claimed that the BJP had kept gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, currently lodged in a Gujarat jail, “like a state guest”. The AAP government, he said, was determined to rid the state of such elements.He said that the government would build strong cases against those brought back. “Our government will present strong evidence against these criminals in courts and ensure that they receive appropriate punishment,” he said, adding, “Our objective is clear: to make Punjab a gangster-free state.”