Investigations into the grenade explosion inside Nirankari Bhavan in Amritsar’s Adliwal village on Sunday point to the involvement of ISI-backed local youths instead of any militant group.
Punjab DGP Suresh Arora told media that the assailants spoke the local Punjabi dialect and that the police had obtained important leads regarding their handlers.
He admitted that the police had “failed to anticipate” the threat to Nirankari centres. “We stepped up security at likely targets — offices of a controversial dera and of radical organisations besides the RSS — but did not foresee the threat to the Nirankaris.”
Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh pointed a finger at Pakistan, saying the grenade used in the blast seemed to have been made in Pakistan’s ordnance factories.
“The attack seems to carry Pakistan’s signature with initial investigations indicating that the grenade used was similar to the ones being manufactured by the Pakistani army ordnance factory,” he said in a statement. The police, he said, had found a similar (HG-84) grenade after it busted a terror module last month. The CM said the attack could not be equated with the Nirankari conflict in 1978, which was a religious matter, whereas the Adliwal incident was “an act of terrorism. It had no religious overtones”. Clashes between the Sikhs and Nirankaris in Amritsar on April 13,1978, had left 13 dead and subsequently resulted in terrorism.
The CM announced a reward of Rs 50 lakh for anyone providing information on those behind the blast.
Senior officials, while admitting the police had been caught off guard, pointed out that 10,000 cops had been deployed to maintain law and order at various protest sites across the state, including Bargari in Faridkot. “Our effort is to put the maximum personnel on security duty, but there are events diverting the attention of the police force,” said a senior official.
An NIA team visited the blast site on Sunday night and held discussions with the top brass of the Punjab Police.
