Amritsar grenade attack: No headway yet, theories abound

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 18

Serving and retired police officials are looking at the grenade attack at a Nirankari prayer hall in Amritsar today as an attempt to provoke the community to indulge in retaliation and disturb peace.

The state government and police machinery are suspecting it a handiwork of Kashmiri militants and Pakistan-sponsored terror modules active in Punjab. Questions are being raised on police intelligence and its efficiency.

Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said the possibility of the involvement of ISI-backed Khalistani or Kashmiri terror groups could not be ruled out. Police teams have been rushed to raid the suspected hideouts of the assailants and multiple teams are investigating various angles to crack the case.

DGP Suresh Arora has commented that “the attack is a clear act of terror and nothing more can be said at this juncture”.

Ludhiana Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu suspected the role of Sikh hardliners. He said: “The role of Sikh hardliner Baljit Singh Daduwal and others who follow his ideology should be probed.”

The attack took place despite a red-alert in the state for last four days on the suspected movement of Kashmiri militant Zakir Musa of Ansar Ghawzat-Ul-Hind in Amritsar and Gurdaspur.

Some officials on the condition of anonymity said the terror groups had earlier successfully targeted Dera Sacha Sauda, Shiv Sena, RSS and Christians, but had failed to provoke any retaliation from them.

“Today’s attack on Nirankaris points out that the terror outfits based in Pakistan seem to be aiming to engage a new group,” said a retired police official.

Experts are already drawing a parallel between today’s attack and the 1978 killings of Nirankaris, which had led to a decade-long period of militancy in Punjab. A senior police official said it might be too early to establish motive as Nirankaris had stayed away from controversy over their faith and conflict with Akal Takht.

As per the Chief Minister’s Office, preliminary investigations had revealed that two men, both with faces covered and one of them having a flowing beard, allegedly forced their way into the hall by brandishing a pistol. They detained a sewadar and hurled a grenade into the prayer room and fled on a motorcycle.

A crater was formed by the impact of the explosion, and was being examined by a forensic team. The safety valve of the grenade has also been found.

The Chief Minister said 15 terror modules had been busted in the past 18 months. Links with Kashmiri terror outfits were also found in some cases as was evident from the arrest of Kashmiri students from Jalandhar and grenade attack on the Maqsudan police station, he added.

Peace under threat: OPPN

• Chandigarh: Former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday expressed concern over the mounting threat to peace and communal harmony in the state. He blamed the Congress for encouraging “enemies of peace” for political gains. 

• SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal too said peace and communal harmony were in danger in Punjab.

• The Aam Aadmi Party, the CPI and the CPM called it an attempt to disturb hard-earned peace in the state.

• Party MPs Bhagwant Mann and Sadhu Singh, Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema, core committee chairman Principal Budhram and Amritsar Lok Sabha poll candidate Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said law and order in the state had gone from bad to worse. Mann accused Capt Amarinder Singh of failing to protect the state. 

• Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh will visit the Nirankari Satsang Bhavan at Adliwal village on the outskirts of Amritsar on Monday. After reviewing the situation with senior administrative officers, he will meet the injured, a government spokesman said. tNS