Amritsar: In a major terrorist incident, three persons died and 20 were injured when two motorcycle-borne masked youths threw a grenade at a Nirankari congregation in Rajasansi area in Amritsar district Sunday, police said.
The grenade attack took place at Nirankari Satsang Bhawan of the Nirankari sect in Adliwal, 15-km from here. The campus is around three kilometres from Guru Ram Das Jee Amritsar international airport.
The injured were rushed to hospitals in Amritsar. Two of them were in serious condition. All the victims were sect followers who had gathered for the Sunday weekly religious meeting.
Punjab Director General of Police Suresh Arora, who rushed to the spot along with senior police officers, admitted it was a ‘‘terror act’’.
‘‘We are taking it as a terror act. This incident is against a group and not an individual. That’s why we are taking it as a terror act. We did not have any specific input of a strike against any particular group,’’ he told the media in Adliwal.
Describing it as an unfortunate incident, Arora said further investigations will reveal details about who was behind the attack.
Witnesses told the police that two youths on a motorcycle, their faces covered, forced entry to the sect campus by pointing a pistol at a woman volunteer at the gate.
“Everything happened within a couple of minutes. They got in, threw the grenade and fled,’’ one man told the police.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Sunday directed the police to immediately enhance security arrangements at all sensitive places, terming it as ‘‘the first such indiscriminate attack on innocent people in recent past’’.
‘‘Preliminary investigations had revealed that two men, one of them with a flowing beard, with covered faces, allegedly forced their way into the hall by brandishing a pistol. They detained the sewadar, lobbed the grenade into the prayer room, and escaped on a motorcycle,’’ he said.
A crater three inches in diameter was formed by the impact of the explosion. The safety valve of the grenade has also been found, he said.
“The possibility of involvement of ISI-based Khalistani/Kashmiri terror groups cannot be ruled out. Police teams are investigating various angles,” the Chief Minister said in a statement.
The attack happened amid a high alert issued November 14 by the Punjab Police regarding the movement of 6-7 terrorists in the state.
