New Delhi: Punjab was rocked by twin explosions on Tuesday evening, one right outside the headquarters of the Punjab frontier of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Jalandhar and the other in the cantonment area of Amritsar, prompting a massive response from the state’s security apparatus. No deaths have been reported so far, but the blasts that took place within two hours have shaken up the sensitive border state.
In the first of the two incidents, a substantial explosion occurred at BSF Chowk when a Yamaha Activa scooter belonging to a local delivery boy was burnt after an apparent blast. The incident left a BSF trooper who was on security duty injured by splinters.
A Jalandhar Police team, along with personnel from the Forensic Science Laboratory, rushed to the scene and collected samples from the incident site. Having visited the site, Jalandhar Police Commissioner Dhanpreet Kaur said that the two scooter riders, including its owner Gurpreet Singh, were examined, and no suspicious activity involving them was detected. She said, however, further details about the blast would be known only after a thorough forensic analysis.
Sources said that an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) triggered the explosion, and that it was captured by the surveillance camera installed outside the BSF Frontier Headquarters.
Approximately one-and-a-half hours later, another explosion was heard by locals and security personnel deployed at an Indian Army camp in Amritsar’s Khasa Cantonment. Once again, police officers, including Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Aditya Warrier, rushed to the site along with a Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) team.
Sources in the Punjab Police indicated that shrapnel of the explosion damaged tin sheets and the wall of the camp. Officials said it would be premature to call it an explosion triggered by an IED or a grenade. “Some crude grenades have sharpnel, and hence it cannot be ruled out that a grenade was lobbed from a distance,” one official said.
Senior Superintendent of Police (Amritsar Rural ) Suhail Qasim Mir also suggested that some substance may well have been thrown towards the Khasa camp, leading to the explosion.
Senior Punjab Police officials said that a probe has been launched into both cases, keeping in mind the “worst-case scenario”, including one that involves terrorist outfits from across the border or their footsoldiers in the state.
The developments in Jalandhar and Amritsar come weeks after a botched attempt to blow up the railway line along the dedicated freight corridor in Patiala district. A probe by the Punjab Police found that a terror module involving one Jagroop Singh was attempting to plant an IED along the railway line. The device exploded prematurely, however, leaving Singh dead, and providing essential clues to the police.
Sharing more than 500 km of the International Border with Pakistan, Punjab has seen a wave of attacks on security installations in the border districts such as Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Batala. The incident outside the BSF headquarters in Jaladhar, however, is a first of its kind in a city near the national capital.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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