Intel alert on possible blast went unnoticed

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 24

The Ludhiana court complex blast may have been averted had action been taken on the alert sounded by the Internal Security Wing about possible terror strikes due to high incidence of drone sightings in the past six months along the Pakistan border.

The December 14 alert by the ADGP (Internal Security), Punjab Police, went begging as nine days later, the blast took place, killing one.

The note said there was high risk of a terror strike as since June, 43 recorded attempts had been made by the agencies in Pakistan to drop material for tiffin bombs, weapons or ammunition besides drugs in Punjab. It was feared drones might have succeeded in dropping the material and gone unnoticed. The note underlined the police had not been able to crack the case involving lobbing of a grenade outside a Pathankot Army camp on November 20. It said those who threw the bomb were at large and might try to carry out another violent incident.

It said another incident of hurling grenades at the CIA office in Nawanshahr on the intervening night of November 7 and 8 remained unsolved.