Grenade attack on temple in Punjab’s Amritsar, no casualty

CCTV camera footage of the incident shows two masked men came to the temple on Shershah Suri Road in Khandwala area of border city on a motorcycle.

An explosion took place outside Thakur Dwara Temple in Amritsar’s Khandwala area in the wee hours of Saturday, police said.

People gather outside Thakur Dwara temple on Shershah Suri road near Khandwala in Amritsar after the blast on Saturday. (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

Though no one was injured, the explosion damaged walls and shattered window panes of the temple. Panic gripped the area.

CCTV footage of the incident shows two unidentified, masked men came to the temple located on Shershah Suri road on a motorcycle. After waiting for a few seconds, one of them threw the explosive towards the temple at 12.45am. Both of them fled on the two-wheeler immediately thereafter.

Amritsar police commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the temple priest informed the police about the blast after which he and other senior officials rushed to the spot. Investigation is underway and efforts are on to arrest the two accused.

ACP (West) Shivdarshan Singh, who was also at the spot, said a forensic team had collected samples from the spot.

A local Shiromani Akali Dal leader and advocate, Kirandeep Singh Monu, said the temple was built 25 years ago. He said the priest and his family were sleeping in the temple complex when the blast took place.

Union minister of state of railways Ravneet Singh Bittu condemned the attack on Thakur Dwara temple. “The AAP government fails to check repeated incidents of blasts in the border city (of Amritsar). Deteriorating law and order in Punjab is a matter of serious concern,” he posted on X.

The blast comes a month after a series of 10 explosions outside police installations in Punjab between November 2024 and February 2025. The last such blast took place at a non-operational police chowki near the Fatehgarh Churian bypass in Amritsar district on February 3. Though there were no casualties in the blasts, they triggered panic in the border districts.

The kingpin of the grenade attack was injured in an encounter with the police in Batala on February 27.