CHANDIGARH: A blast occurred at Islamabad police station in Amritsar at early morning today which caused panic in the neighbourhood. This is the fourth such incident in Amritsar in the last month and the sixth such incident at a police establishment in the state. Explosive material was recovered before detonation in one case while the remaining two incidents resulted in blasts. In this case, however, the state police deny that a blast occured at the police station.
Through a social media post the Germany-based gangster Jeevan Fauji claimed responsibility for the blast. " I, Jeevan Fouji, take responsibility for throwing the grenade at the Islamabad police station.’’ read the post, it also mentioned Babbar Khalsa.
Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar denied that a blast took place. He said locals heard the sound of the explosion at the police station, but there was no damage there which will be verified through a scientific investigation by the forensic team. " We had nabbed ten people from a module earlier, two brothers were also nabbed one of them is a juvenile,’’ he said.
Another police official claimed a heavy object had fallen on the temporary police sentry post outside the police station.
According to locals, the explosion was heard at the police station at around 3 am after senior officials reached the spot, the gates were closed and police personnel were deployed around the police station. The officials of the State Special Operations Cell, the army and the Border Security Force reached the spot to inspect the area.
A resident said houses near the police station developed cracks after the blast.
In the recent incidents on December 4, a blast was reported inside Majitha police station in Amritsar which the police dismissed as a tyre burst and before that on November 28 a blast was reported at the Gurbax Nagar police station which was triggered by a hand grenade. Earlier on the intervening night of November 23 and 24, an IED was planted outside the Ajnala police station but did not explode and was later recovered by the police. In the investigations, the name of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) operative Harpreet Singh, alias Happy Passian figured.
In May last year, two blasts were reported at Heritage Street near Golden Temple in Amritsar within 32 hours the first explosion left six people injured on May 6, another blast took place at the same spot the very next day.