Chandigarh: The two persons who were killed in an unexplained blast in a village in Tarn Taran district of Punjab Wednesday evening were trying to dispose of an explosive used in the manufacture of firecrackers, the National Investigative Agency (NIA) has found.
The NIA and the Punjab Police jointly probed the blast, which took place in an agriculture field in Pandori Gola village. Two persons were killed and one was injured in the blast.
The incident followed the death of 23 people at a firecracker factory in Batala earlier in the day.
Dhruv Dahiya, the Tarn Taran SSP, said the statement of the person who was injured was yet to be taken as he was not fit to speak at the moment.
Terror angle ruled out
An NIA team reached Pandori Gola Thursday afternoon, after being approached by the Punjab Police. The agencies were initially looking at the possibility of a set of people trying to recover explosives hidden at a specific spot — called a “dead letter box” — to carry out an act of terror. Police said this method of delivering explosives, weapons and ammunition is commonly used by terror groups.
Owing to this possibility, the Punjab Police had asked the post-blast investigation team of the National Security Guards to examine the spot. The NSG team was expected to reach Thursday evening or Friday morning.
A bomb disposal squad was also stationed at the spot, as the police expected to find more explosives in the area.
However, the NIA team reported that the explosive material was potassium chloride, along with traces of sulphur, which are commonly used in manufacturing firecrackers.
The NIA also reported that no shrapnel was found in the area. The weight of the mixture was about 1 kg, which exploded leading to the deaths and injuries, its report said, putting the terror theory to rest.
Police sources said it’s possible that the three persons were trying to dispose of old firecracker explosives lying with them following the Batala incident.
S.P.S. Parmar, the inspector general of police (border range), had earlier told ThePrint that a preliminary check of the three persons had revealed they did not have any background of criminal behaviour.
The Batala incident
The Tarn Taran blast occurred within hours of a devastating explosion in a firecracker factory in Batala that led to the death of 23 people and left at least half-a-dozen injured Wednesday. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had ordered a magisterial probe into their incident.
“Following the Batala incident, we have ordered the sealing of several firecracker factories running illegally in the area or those which do not comply with the requisite conditions,” said IG Parmar.
Police sources said this fear of a crackdown is probably what led the three persons in Tarn Taran to either start digging out some firecracker explosives they had hidden, or hiding an explosive they had at home, which ignited and led to the blast.
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