Punjab: Two killed in ‘mysterious’ explosion in Tarn Taran

TARN TARAN: Two persons were killed while another sustained injuries in a bomb explosion in Punjab's Tarn Taran district on late Wednesday night.
Given the seriousness of the incident in a district which was hotbed of terror activities during the days of militancy in Punjab, the police have called in the NIA to investigate the incident.
According to reports, three persons were digging the fields near Kaler village when the explosion occurred at around 8pm on Wednesday.
The deceased have been identified as Harpreet Singh, resident of Bachharae village and Vikramjit Singh, a resident of Kadgill village. Gurjant Singh, who sustained serious injuries in the explosion, was admitted to a nearby hospital.
Following the blast, police carried out search in the area with the help of sniffer dogs.
Inspector general, border range, SPS Parmar told TOI on Thursday that it was too early to reach any conclusion. “We have called in an NIA team to investigate the blast,” he said adding that the injured person was in custody of police but he was not in a position to record his statement.
Sources informed that police were investigating into the incident in light of November 18, 2018 grenade attack at Rajasansi branch of Nirankari Bhawan at Adliwal village near Amritsar in which three followers of the sect were killed while nineteen others were injured.
The grenade attack was confirmed as a terrorist act wherein the attackers had lobbed the grenade during a weekly satsang (spiritual discourse) of the Nirankari sect. The incident was also investigated by NIA.
Police had arrested Bikramjit Singh and Avtar Singh whose interrogation had revealed that they were in touch with Pakistan-based terrorist, Harmeet Phd, a resident of Chheherta locality of Amritsar, who had fled to Pakistan and lived in Dera Chahal. A day before the attack on Nirankari Bhawan both of them had ‘retrieved’ weapons near Majitha.
"We believe there could be another similar consignment of weapons which was to be retrieved on the instruction of Pak handlers and used for some terrorist act,” said sources.