IED recovered behind police post in Amritsar

The Punjab Police found an improvised explosive device behind a police post in Amritsar district, even as the BJP slammed the “steadily deteriorating security situation” under the AAP government.

Acting on specific information, the Rayya police post in charge, Guriqbal Singh, recovered the explosive from behind the chowki on Friday (February 20) night, an official said.

The official said that the area was cordoned off after the recovery, and a bomb disposal squad was called to the spot.

Police said the improvised explosive device (IED) was later defused, and an FIR was registered at the Beas police station. An investigation is underway, they added.

“Due to the alertness and swift action of Amritsar rural police, an IED-related incident was averted in time. A thorough investigation is underway,” the police said in a post on X.

Meanwhile, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh slammed the AAP government and said the conspiracy to blow up a police post in Amritsar using an IED is “a serious reflection of the steadily deteriorating security situation in Punjab”.

He said it is deeply alarming that anti-national elements are emboldened enough to target police establishments in a sensitive border state.

Mr. Chugh added that while the prompt action of the bomb disposal squad and security personnel averted a major tragedy, the Mann dispensation must clarify how such explosive material reached inside the city.

He questioned whether the intelligence apparatus has “weakened” or whether the government’s “priorities lie elsewhere”.

Over the past four years, Punjab’s law and order situation has “significantly deteriorated”, he alleged.

Repeated incidents of gang wars, criminal operations being run from inside jails, drone-based smuggling of weapons and narcotics, and the revival of cross-border terror modules clearly indicate a weakening internal security framework, he further said.

He asserted that administrative laxity has emboldened anti-social and anti-national elements in the state.

Reacting to the recovery of the IED, Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal also hit out at Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for not being concerned about the law and order situation.

“Despite being the home minister, Mann never took even one meeting on the law and situation,” he said.