Explosion outside temple in Amritsar, opposition slams AAP govt

AMRITSAR: A blast occurred outside a temple in Amritsar around midnight when an unidentified attacker who came on a motorcycle hurled an explosive device towards the building, damaging a portion of its wall and shattering window panes, officials said on Saturday.

Punjab Police said it suspects the role of Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the attack on Thakur Dwar temple and vowed to apprehend the culprits soon.

There have been many incidents of explosions targeting police posts in Amritsar and Gurdaspur in the past four months but this is the first such attack on a temple.

While no one was hurt in the incident which was captured on CCTV, the explosion caused panic among residents in the Khandwala area of Amritsar.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the Amritsar incident was a handiwork of fissiparous forces that want to destabilise the peace but they will never succeed in their design.

Opposition parties alleged that it was proof of the “collapse” of the law and order under the AAP government.

Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the police were informed about the incident at around 2 am on Saturday by the temple priest.

CCTV footage of the incident showed two unidentified persons coming to the temple on a motorcycle which had a flag. One person got down and, after a while, hurled a explosive device towards the temple. The two then fled from the site and the blast occurred.

Security has been stepped up around the explosion site and the police have covered the damaged wall with a green net.

Bhullar said police teams were trying to trace the men involved in the blast and they would be nabbed soon. “Our teams are following them. Like we had traced earlier incidents, this incident will also be traced,” he said.

He suspected the role of Pakistan’s ISI behind the incident.

“I want to warn all the youths not to fall into the trap of Pakistan’s ISI. All the previous incidents have been traced and the accused have been arrested. It came to the fore that the accused belonged to economically weaker families and they did all for the money.

“I want to warn them not to destroy their lives. The police will take strictest action against them,” said Bhullar.

Unconfirmed reports claimed a grenade was used in the attack.

A forensic team has collected samples from the spot, Bhullar said, adding the nature of explosives will be ascertained after necessary examination.

Bhullar said the police have captured CCTV footage from different nearby cameras.

At the time of the attack, the priest of the temple was sleeping inside the temple and woke up to the sound of the explosion.

Chief Minister Mann said many attempts have been made from time to time to disturb Punjab but the state police has taken timely action against such elements.

“Punjab is completely safe in terms of law and order,” he told reporters in Chandigarh.

He stressed that mutual brotherhood and peace would be maintained in the state.

Being a border state, a number of forces inimical to the state have been chalking out nefarious designs to disturb the hard-earned peace of Punjab, Mann later said in a statement.

However, he said that the vigilant Punjab Police has always foiled such attempts.

Mann said the Amritsar incident was also the handiwork of the fissiparous forces that want to destabilise the peace, progress and prosperity of the state.

He said that the state government will never allow these forces to succeed in their nefarious designs and all their conspiracies will be foiled.

Mann also stressed that the law and order situation in Punjab is much better than in other states.

The Congress, the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal targeted the AAP government after the incident.

“I strongly condemn the bomb attack on Thakur Dwara temple, Khandwala in Amritsar. AAP government fails to check repeated incidents of blasts in the border city. Deteriorating law and order in Punjab is a matter of serious concern,” Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu said on X.

Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring also condemned the incident, saying this time a temple was targeted.

“Yet another grenade attack in Amritsar, this time targeting a temple in the Khandwala area. There is an atmosphere of fear prevailing in Punjab, and people are genuinely feeling insecure. It’s high time the @AAPPunjab government wakes up from its deep slumber and takes action,” said Warring in a post on X.

Senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia said it was a “law and order failure.” Another SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema sought a judicial probe into the incident to identify the perpetrators and unearth the conspiracy, aimed at disturbing peace and communal harmony in the state.

“This is the 13th such blast in the area and is proof of the complete collapse of law and order in the state”, said Cheema.

BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh sought a CBI investigation to expose the forces attempting to disturb law and order in Punjab.

Expressing serious concern over the repeated attacks, Chugh said the AAP government has “completely failed to control disruptive elements in the state.”

While police stations were attacked earlier, the targeting of a Hindu temple with a grenade is a serious and alarming development.

He said there appears to be a deliberate attempt to create communal and social divisions in the state.

Meanwhile, referring to the problems of drugs, gangsters and calls for ransom, Chief Minister Mann said that these are also attempts to disturb Punjab to show it as a disturbed state.

But our Punjab Police constantly takes timely action against anti-social elements.

He said the Border Security Force (BSF) has informed the state government that ever since an anti-drugs drive has been initiated in the state, the drone movement from across the border has reduced by 70 per cent.(Agencies)