A 45-year-old pastor was killed inside his home in Batala city, in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab, a state in northern India, on Thursday, October 8, 2026. Police have registered a case against a man from the same locality, and one report said an arrest followed within hours.
The dead man, Balwinder Pal, was also known as Ladi. He lived in Gandhi Camp, an area of Batala, and ran a church from his house. Relatives said he lived alone and was by himself when the attack took place. One media report put the time at about 10 am.
According to relatives, unidentified men entered the house and attacked him with sharp weapons. He was taken to the Civil Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
Police have registered a case against Naresh Kumar, who also lives in Gandhi Camp. The case follows a complaint from the pastor’s brother.
Lakhwinder Singh, in-charge of the Civil Lines police station, said that police have named Naresh as an accused after taking statements from the pastor’s family. Singh reached the spot with a police team soon after the incident was reported.
Police also said that Pal was stabbed with a sharp-edged weapon. As per reports the attacker cut his throat with a cutter used for iron. Sukhinder Singh Kahlon, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (City), a senior officer, said the killing was committed out of suspicion. According to reports, the accused believed his wife visited the pastor and suspected an illicit relationship between them. A per one media report, Batala police arrested the accused within about four hours. It, however, did not name him.
CCTV footage of the incident has surfaced, and police are studying it. Reports described a young man in a white shirt walking on foot, with a man in shorts running behind him. It said the accused was later seen leaving on a motorbike and that he has only one arm.
Pal’s nephew, Sunny, said the pastor had no quarrel with anyone. Reports said the family knew of no threat or dispute involving him, and that he stayed in touch with local people through his church. The daylight killing had caused a stir in the area, and relatives and neighbours were asking why anyone would enter his home and attack him.
Singh said a postmortem examination was under way. “The real motive behind the murder and whether anyone else was involved in this incident will be clear only after the police investigation,” he said.
