Amritsar bomb blast: Punjab Police await forensic report to detect material used in explosion

Two days after the powerful blast at a vacant plot along the Majitha Road bypass that claimed one life, the Punjab Police are still awaiting the forensic reports to ascertain the nature of explosive material that caused the explosion.

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The police were investigating whether the blast was caused by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), hidden at the spot or by hand grenades which deceased Nitin Kumar of Chheharta had come to retrieve.

“Going by the intensity of the blast that blew the hands and legs of the suspect, we are yet to ascertain the nature of explosive material,” said SSP, Amritsar Rural, Maninder Singh, adding that they are waiting for the forensic reports in this regard.

“A hand grenade blast would not have been that powerful while IED would have caused much powerful impact,” said the official.

On the other hand, a police official wishing not to be named said it appears to be a hand grenade blast. “There must be more than one hand grenade at the spot which Nitin had gone to retrieve,” he said.

Meanwhile, the police were still to establish the link of the suspect with any Babba Khalsa International module. Nitin took lifts from different persons to reach the spot. The police identified and interrogated those who gave lift to him but nothing substantial was found till now, though the probe was still in progress.

DIG (Border Range) Satinder Singh had on Tuesday hinted the involvement of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI-backed terror outfit Babbar Khalsa International, adding that such tactics of dropping explosives at isolated places and marking the spot with identifiable objects like electric poles and then share the pictures of the site with operatives for collection are used by BKI.

Police officials have claimed to have strong evidence linking Nitin to the terror group, adding that he had been under surveillance for some time.