Grenade blast near Pathankot Army cantonment

AMRITSAR/CHANDIGARH: A grenade blast near the Army cantonment in Pathankot late on Sunday has prompted the authorities to sound an alert in the district and all along the international border with Pakistan. No casualty was reported in the blast that took place in front of the Triveni Dwar of the Cantt area, police officials said on Monday.
“It’s a terrorist activity. The CCTV footage is being analysed,” said Pathankot SSP Surendra Lamba. A forensic team had also collected the samples of explosives, he added. Police officials said the grenade was probably hurled by some unidentified persons on a motorcycle as a sentry on the duty informed that it occurred soon after a bike passed by around 9 pm.
Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa held a meeting with senior police officers and issued strict orders to increase night patrolling across the state. Randhawa, who heads the home department, said it has come to his notice that adequate police patrolling was not carried out during the night and ordered that at least one-third of the gazetted officers in each commissionerate or district be deputed for patrolling as per the roster. “I can randomly check the location of the duty officer at any time by making a video call to the official concerned,” he said.
Principal secretary (home) Anurag Verma has issued letters to the DGP, the ADGP (law and order), police commissioners and SSPs in this regard, asking them to follow the directions of the deputy chief minister in true spirit. Police commissioners and SSPs have also been asked to send a copy of the roster to the ADGP (law and order), who would consolidate the roster of all districts and send a copy to the deputy chief minister, the home secretary and the DGP by 5 pm on a daily basis.
Intelligence sources have not ruled out the possibility of anti-national elements trying to vitiate the atmosphere ahead of elections in Punjab. Recently, there has also been an increase in the number of incidents of violation of Indian air space by drones originating from Pakistani soil.
Suicide bombers, pre-dawn attacks
Jan 2, 2016 | Pathankot Airbase Attack
Four Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists entered the Pathankot Air Force station, killing seven security personnel and a civilian. All four were neutralised in the gun battle. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which took over the probe, filed charges in the Mohali NIA court on December 19, 2016, naming Pakistan-based JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar as the mastermind behind the attack. The charge sheet also named the terrorists who attacked the airbase – Nazir Hussain, Umar Farooq, Abdul Qayum and Hafiz Abu Bakar. On March 9, 2017, the NIA court had declared Masood Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf Asgar, Shahid Latif and Kashif Jan as proclaimed offenders. The case is still pending trial.
July 27, 2015 | Dinanagar Attack
Three Pak-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists dressed in Army fatigues opened fire on a bus injuring several passengers, before entering the Dinanagar police station in Gurdaspur district. They killed three civilians and four policemen, including SP (detective) Baljit Singh, before being gunned down in a nearly 12-hour long operation. Several sophisticated weapons were seized from them, including night vision devices, AK-47 rifles and grenades. Five bombs were found planted on the Pathankot-Amritsar rail line bridge almost 5 km from the attack site.