AMRITSAR: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday said the grenade attack at the Nirankari Bhawan seemed to bear the imprint of Pakistan, with preliminary probe indicating that the grenade used was similar to the ones being manufactured by the Pakistani Army Ordinance factory.
Amarinder, who flew in from Chandigarh along with his cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu and Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar to take stock of the situation, said the police had recovered similar HG- 84 grenades from a terror module busted by the Punjab Police last month, indicating a high probability of the involvement of inimical forces from across the border.
Prima facie, this appears to be an act of terror by separatist forces, plotted and executed with the support of ISI-backed Khalistani or Kashmiri terrorist groups, he said, adding that his government had taken serious note of the incident and was aggressively pursuing all angles of investigation.
The culprits would soon be arrested, he promised, while talking to media persons after visiting the scene of the attack. The state government has announced R50 lakh as reward for any information leading to the arrest of the assailants.
Amarinder said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was also helping in the investigation and certain leads had been unearthed.
Responding to a query, Amarinder said the attack could not be equated with the Nirankari conflict in 1978, as that was a religious matter and the Adliwal incident was purely one of terrorism. Violence between the Sant Nirankari Mission and traditional Sikhs on April 13, 1978 at Amritsar had left 13 dead and sparked the subsequent wave of terrorism in the state. Sunday's incident had no religious overtones, as per the preliminary probe, the chief minister said.
Asked to comment on AAP MLA HS Phoolka's statement accusing the Army Chief of orchestrating the Nirankari Bhawan grenade attack to prove that his claim on the revival of terrorism in the state was right, Amarinder said the AAP leader was 'unstable'. Only someone suffering from mental instability could come out with such a despicable and nonsensical statement, he said after undertaking an on-the-spot assessment of the ground situation.
In response to a question, he said the state was already on high alert, with strict checking going on around landmarks and other vital public installations and infrastructure. Police checkpoints had been set up in all districts and patrol parties were moving around with an eye on suspicious objects or activities, if any, he said, directing the district and police administration to explore the possibility of installing CCTV cameras at all strategic points.
The chief minister, who also visited the IVY Hospital to meet the injured, announced jobs for the kin of those killed in the attack and R50, 000 each to the injured, in addition to free treatment.
Senior Congress leader and former Ludhiana MP Manish Tewari urged both the central and Punjab governments to work closely for maintaining peace in the state, saying the blast in Amritsar was ISI's attempt to revive the Khalistan insurgency.