Explosions revive memories

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 15

The four low intensity blasts at the Maqsudan police station here on Friday brought back memories of residents of some similar incidents of use of crude bombs for creating panic in the recent past.

One of the most recallable episode was when eight passengers got wounded in a bomb blast in a bus carrying 45 passengers at the Jalandhar bus stand on April 28, 2006, at 4 pm. The bus belonged to Nangal roadways depot. But unlike the blast on Friday in which Bhindranwala Tigers Force of Khalistan took the responsibility, there was no one to take onus for the same then.

On December 5, 2015, a suspected chemical bomb blast was thrown inside a Maruti Swift Dzire car at Dugri village, 3 km from Jalandhar-Pathankot highway, that killed a clothe merchant and left another with minor injuries. Victim Ajay Sharma (35) of Jalandhar’s Moti Nagar area died in an otherwise low-intensity explosion. Property dealer Jagmohan Singh (45) of Godaipur, who had three cases of murder and another of drug trade, had got badly injured.

In yet another episode on Republic Day of 2016, a bomb-like object was found in front of a shop on the Jalandhar-Pathankot national highway. It was timely detected and found to be nicely wrapped in a sack and was found by a local scrap dealer. Found to be without a detonator, it was taken to open fields near Ballian village and was disintegrated by a bomb disposal squad from the PAP.

In this one too, Police Commissioner Praveen Sinha maintained: “We kept it intact till the forensic and NSG teams arrived on Saturday. We even kept them covered but since the sites were in open, they somehow got partially affected before their arrival due to morning rain.”

The forensic team had found airgun pellets from the site this morning.