Blast at Punjab police intel HQ, rocket attack suspected: Police
CHANDIGARH: An explosion took place at the headquarters of Punjab Police’s intelligence wing in Mohali late on Monday, police said, adding that a projectile was possibly fired at the building.
The blast was reported from the third floor of the building that houses the intelligence wing, the special task force against drugs, the anti-gangster task force and several other wings of the state police.
There was no report of any casualties from the blast. The area was cordoned off and senior officers reached the spot, said a police official who did not want to be named. A high alert has been sounded in Punjab.
Some windows of the building were shattered by the blast. Punjab DGP VK Bhawra told HT: “A preliminary probe has revealed that something was fired at the Intelligence headquarters from a distance around 8pm. It hit one of our offices and damaged the table. We are probing the matter further.”
A senior intelligence official familiar with the matter said “a rocket-like thing” was fired from the side of Sohana Charitable Hospital that is situated next to the headquarters.
Police and forensic teams also rushed to the spot.
The explosion came close on the heels of the recovery of an explosive device near Burail jail in Chandigarh on April 24.
Earlier on Monday, the intelligence wing had asked the state’s law enforcement agencies to beef up security following the receipt of two letters from a commander of Pakistan-based terror group Jaishe-mohammad, threatening to target VIPS in the state and carry out attacks at major installations. On Sunday, police arrested two bikeborne men carrying an IED rigged with around 1.5kg of RDX in Tarn Taran district.