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Police probing radical angle in Tarn Taran blast
A day after two persons were killed and one injured in the blast in an abandoned plot on Tarn Taran-Khadoor Sahib link road near Pandoori Gola village, 10km from
A day after two persons were killed and one injured in the blast in an abandoned plot on Tarn Taran-Khadoor Sahib link road near Pandoori Gola village, 10km from district headquarters, police were exploring radical angle in the incident.
Bikramjit Singh, 22, of Kadgill village and Harpreet Singh, 19, of Bachre village had died on the spot while Gurjant Singh, 27, had suffered serious injuries in the incident. Police had said the trio was digging the earth either to excavate or hide the explosives.
On Thursday, the spot was inspected by the teams of National Investigation Agency (NIA), Punjab Police’s bomb squad along with dog squad and forensic experts to find the ‘nature of explosion’. Amritsar IG-border range Inspector general Surinderpal Singh Parmar, Tarn Taran senior superintendent of police (SSP) Dhruv Dahiya, Tarn Taran (SP-headquarters) Harjit Singh along with other senior police officials visited the spot.
Gurjant, who had lost his both eyes in the explosion, was admitted to a private hospital in Tarn Taran on Wednesday night while the bodies of the deceased remained at the spot till later afternoon as forensic team was yet to arrive at explosion site.
“We will hand over the bodies of the deceased after postmortem on Friday,” said the DSP.
IG Parmar said, “The injured was in intensive care unit (ICU) and not in condition to give statement.”
The IG said, “Our preliminary investigation suggests that the victims were not hardcore criminals. We are probing the case from radical angle. Prima facie, it seemed the blast was triggered by potassium in the explosive. There was no grenade. However, a team of NIA and other forensic experts has taken samples from the spot and the nature of the explosive would be ascertained only after its report.”
Sources, however, said police were also linking it with the incident in which Amritsar rural police had recovered two hand grenades. Police had then accused Pakistan-based Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) leader Harmeet Singh for placing the grenades.
FOREIGN FUNDING
Meanwhile, a senior police on the condition of anonymity said, “We found that injured Gurjant Singh and one of the deceased Bikramjit Singh had links with some Sikh radicals. Younger brother of Bikram, Nishan Sing (24), is in Dubai while the younger brother of Gurjant, Beant Singh (25), is in some other country. We are also examining the call details of the duo. Their bank accounts are also being scanned.”
‘TERROR ANGLE CANNOT BE RULED OUT’
Saying that police were not ruling out terror angle, SP Harjit Singh said, “A team of national security guards, a counter terrorism unit under the ministry of home affairs (MHA), will also visit the spot. However, the case will remains with us.”
VICTIMS HAD CRIMINAL RECORDS
The trio also has criminal records, said the police sources. Gurjant, whose mother Manjit Kaur is a member panchayat (MP) of Bachre village, was booked in December 2018 under Section 307 (attempt to murder) in Tarn Taran by Sadar police while Bikramjit Singh was booked in the same police station under the Arms Act around two years ago.
WHAT FAMILY MEMBERS HAVE TO SAY
“My brother worked as a carpenter. On Wednesday morning, he had left home for work, but did not come back. At around 8 pm, we called him, but his number was unreachable. At around 10 pm, police informed me that my brother had died in the blast,” said Bikramjit’s younger brother Jaspal Singh.
Bikramjit’s mother said police searched her house on Thursday morning and took away their bank passbooks. “He (Bikramjit) was not behaving normally for the last one year,” she added.
Harpreet’s father Kulbir Singh, who works as a mason, said, “On Wednesday, Gujant had taken my son to Pandoori village. Late night, police informed us that my son was killed in a road accident. He was innocent.”
Harpreet is survived by his father, mother and a sister while Bikramjit is survived by his three brothers and mother.
