Speaking at a press conference in Ludhiana during his Punjab visit, Shah said he had visited Gurdaspur, Sangrur and Mansa on Vijayadashami and met the families of three people affected by the drug crisis. According to Shah, 40-year-old Vikramjit Singh of Gurdaspur, Gulzar Singh of Sangrur and Parvinder Singh Jhota of Mansa were associated with the fight against drugs and were either murdered or forced to die by suicide because of their opposition to the drug trade.
Shah said that during his long political career, he had met families affected by several tragic incidents, but meeting these three families had left him deeply saddened. He claimed that conversations with local residents troubled by the drug trade had revealed a situation in Punjab far more disturbing than the reports reaching him on paper in Delhi.
Questioning the AAP government, Shah asked what answer it would give to families who had lost their sons, brothers or husbands. During his visit to Mansa, he also met the family of Parvinder Singh Jhota and assured them that a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe would be conducted.
Recalling his earlier visit to Punjab, Shah said he had come to address the Bharatiya Janata Party's rally for a drug-free Punjab and appeal for an end to the drug trade. Instead, he alleged, accusations had been levelled against him.
“Today, I have come here to console grieving people. I had no political agenda. But I was subjected to abusive language,” Shah said, responding to the criticism directed at him.
He added that abusive remarks against him would achieve nothing and said those making them could continue if it gave them satisfaction. However, he urged the Punjab government to focus on eliminating the drug trade, particularly the business of chitta, a term commonly used for heroin.
Shah reminded the Punjab government and its leaders that they had come to power after promising to eliminate the drug trade within three months. Five years had passed, he said, but drug trafficking continued to increase.
He further alleged that even police personnel in Punjab were being caught in connection with drug cases and that seizures involving 10–12 kilograms of heroin had been reported from them. Shah also expressed concern over the deaths of people opposing drug trafficking, alleging that some had been murdered while others had been driven to suicide.
“The people responsible in the Punjab AAP government should be ashamed,” Shah said, criticising the administration over its handling of the drug crisis.
Turning to the people of Punjab, Shah questioned why the AAP government had failed to stop drug trafficking. He also alleged that even after drugs were seized, samples were not being tested in forensic laboratories. According to him, drug traffickers had formed gangs in every district of the state.
Shah promised that Punjab would be made drug-free by December 31, 2029. Citing the removal of Article 370 and the fight against terrorism and Naxalism, he said the government would now work to eliminate drugs from Punjab.
Paying tribute to those who had lost their lives because of drugs, Shah urged the people of Punjab to continue raising their voices against the menace. His remarks placed the state's drug crisis, the safety of those opposing trafficking and the AAP government's unfulfilled three-month pledge at the centre of the political debate during his visit.
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