Blast during high alert catches police napping
CHANDIGARH/AMRITSAR : The Sunday grenade attack on a religious congregation in Amritsar has caught the Punjab Police napping and exposed glaring chinks in the state intelligence. The attack took place at a time when Punjab was a high alert following a specific input on a bunch of Jaish-e-Mohammand terrorists having sneaked into its territory.
DGP Intelligence Dinkar Gupta had on Wednesday directed district police chiefs to increase vigil, set up special nakas and strengthen second line of defence in border areas. Yet the attackers managed to get into the prayer hall of Niranakris with hand grenades and pistols and easily escaped from the area that is situated just 2 km away from the high-security Guru Ramdass International Airport at Rajasansi.
“We had no information about a religious function being organised in the area. Also, there was no intel input on possibility of attack on such congregations,” said Amritsar SSP (rural) Parampal Singh.
Congress MLA Dr Raj Kumar Verka, however, said it was an “intelligence failure.” “This is a big failure as state was already on high alert ,” he said . The second grenade attack in Punjab in two months has put the Captain Amarinder Singh-led government on the backfoot. On September 14, four low-intensity grenades were hurled at Maqsudan police station in Jalandhar in which two cops were injured.
Later, Punjab Police said the blast was the handiwork of Kashmirbased terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind and two Valley youths studying in a local engineering college were arrested.
The opposition, which has accused the Captain government of hobnobbing with radical elements on various Sikh issues, is likely to corner the ruling party over the Amritsar attack.
BJP national secretary RP Singh was quick to attack the Punjab government after the attack. “Ministers’ friendship Khalistanis will cost Punjab dear,” he tweeted. He was making an apparent reference to rural development minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa’s alleged closeness to supporters of US-based pro-Khalistan group, Sikhs for Justice.