GURDASPUR: Terrorists of a pro-Khalistan outfit lobbed a grenade at an abandoned police post near the border town of Kalanaur in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district late Wednesday, making it the fifth such attack targeting a police station or post in less than a month.
Banned Khalistan Zindabad Force claimed responsibility for the attack through a post on social media, saying it was in retaliation to allegedly objectionable remarks against Sikhs by police personnel from UP and Bihar.
The outfit said it would continue to “respond to such provocations under the leadership of Ranjit Singh Jammu and Jaswinder Singh Bagh, alias Manu Agwan”.
The explosion, which didn’t cause much damage, was reported a day after Islamabad police station in Amritsar reported an “explosion-like noise” in the vicinity that the security establishment later confirmed as “an attack”. Kalanaur police station’s SHO Jagdish Singh said the autorickshaw from which the terrorists hurled the grenade at the abandoned post was traced and confiscated soon after the blast. A forensic team collected samples from the site. At a security review on Dec 17, DGP Gaurav Yadav directed the police brass to identify common trends and patterns in the recent attacks.
Shiromani Akali Dal functionary and ex-minister Bikram Singh Majithia said in a post on X that the brazenness of the attacks targeting police stations and posts was a measure of deterioration in law and order. Referring to the Dec 4 Majitha police station blast, he wondered whether police would still label it a “tyre burst”, adding that CM Bhagwant Mann should either improve law and order or step down.