Grenade attack kills 3 in Punjab prayer meet
Motorcycleborne assailants target Nirankari meet in Amritsar
AMRITSAR: Two men on a motorcycle barged into a prayer hall in Amritsar and threw a grenade at a religious gathering on Sunday, killing three people including a preacher and injuring at least 20 in a suspected terror attack, police in Punjab said.
Around 11.30am, the masked men targeted a gathering of the Nirankari sect in Rajasansi area, which is about 15km from central Amritsar and close to an international airport. At least 200 people were at the prayer hall for a weekly religious meeting.
“We are considering it as a terror act. This incident is against a group, and not an individual,” said Punjab director general of police Suresh Arora, who rushed to the spot with senior officials.
Punjab is on an alert after inputs that a group of six to seven terrorists of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-mohammed were reportedly camping in the state. Last week, four people snatched an SUV from its driver at gunpoint near Madhopur in Pathankot district.
In 2016, a group of terrorists stole a car belonging to a Punjab Grenade attack kills three people and injures 20 police official before launching a deadly attack that killed seven soldiers in the state’s Pathankot air base.
Chief minister Amarinder Singh condemned the attack and announced a compensation of ₹500,000 each to the families of the victims. “I appeal to the people of Punjab to maintain peace in wake of Amritsar bomb blast...we will not let the forces of terror destroy our hard earned peace,” he said on Twitter.
Singh also said the possibility of the involvement of ‘Khalistanis’ (Sikh separatists) or Kashmiri groups backed by Pakistani spy agency Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) could not be ruled out.
A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) rushed to the site as part of the agency’s standard operating procedure under which it tracks all terrorrelated cases, said home ministry officials. Punjab is expected to send a report to the ministry, which will then take a call on whether the case has to be handed over to NIA.
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