The Punjab police on Tuesday detained a few persons for questioning in the case of a grenade attack on a religious congregation at Adliwal near Amritsar, which claimed three lives.
The police are yet to arrest the assailants who carried out Sunday’s attack that they said appeared to be an act of terror by separatist forces, organised with the involvement of the ISI-backed Khalistani or Kashmiri terror groups.
Inspector-General Police, Border Range (Amritsar), S.P.S. Parmar told The Hindu that the police had detained a few people for an hour or two for questioning. “We are examining shady characters. Some people have been detained for an hour or two and then let off. The preliminary investigation is going on, and suspicious people are being rounded up and questioned.”
The Dal Khalsa, a radical outfit, alleged that several Sikh activists were summoned by the police, without the legal procedureshaving been followed. “The police came to the houses of Sikh activists Paramjit Singh Mand and Gurjant Singh in the early hours of Tuesday... and asked them to appear before it. While Mr. Mand was not at home, Mr. Gurjant Singh was taken into custody,” Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said. Dal Khalsa chief Harpal Singh Cheema said the police and investigating agencies should probe this attack without prejudice. “Until the identity of the attackers is not ascertained, the motive will remain dubious,” he said, urging that leaders of all parties refrain from accusations.
Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana K.P. Singh appealed to all parties to let the investigating agencies do their job. “It is a serious matter, and any attempt to make political capital out of it will prove disastrous for the State,” he said.
