Amritsar: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has announced a reward of Rs 50 lakh for information leading to the arrest of two men who threw grenades at a religious gathering in Rajasansi village, killing three people and injuring more than 20.
ANI reported that information on the suspects can be provided to the Punjab Police helpline 181 and identity of the caller would be kept secret.
The suspected bombers have been caught on camera with their faces covered and riding a motorbike with no number plate.
The grenade attack took place on Sunday afternoon at the Nirankari Satsang Bhawan of the Nirankari sect, about 15 km from Amritsar. The campus is located in Amritsar's rural belt, around three kilometres from the Guru Ram Das Jee Amritsar international airport.
All the victims were sect followers from nearby villages who had gathered for the Sunday weekly religious meeting.
Punjab Director General of Police Suresh Arora termed it a "terror act". "We are taking it as a terror act. This incident is against a group and not an individual. That's why we are taking it as a terror act. We did not have any specific input of a strike against any particular group," he told the media.
Witnesses told the police that two youths on a motorcycle, their faces covered, forced entry to the sect campus by pointing a pistol at a woman volunteer at the gate.
"Everything happened within a couple of minutes. They got in, threw the grenade and fled," one man told the police.
The CM had on Sunday directed the police to immediately enhance security arrangements at all sensitive places, terming it as "the first such indiscriminate attack on innocent people in recent past". He also announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the dead.
A crater three inches in diameter was formed by the impact of the explosion and was being examined by the forensic team. The safety valve of the grenade has also been found, he said.
The attack on Sunday happened amid a high alert issued on November 14 by the Punjab Police regarding the movement of 6-7 terrorists in the state.
The Nirankari sect, with headquarters in Delhi, has millions of followers across the country and abroad.
In recent months, Khalistani and Kashmiri activists have been trying to foment trouble in Punjab, which shares a 553-km long barbed wire fenced international border with Pakistan.
The Punjab Police, along with the Jammu and Kashmir Police, had recently busted two modules of Kashmiri students who were studying in institutions in Punjab and having links to terrorist outfits in troubled Kashmir.
The Maqsudan police station was targeted by Kashmiri terrorists on September 14 this year with hand grenades though no one was injured in the attack.
Posters of Kashmiri terrorist Zakir Mussa had mysteriously appeared in Punjab's Gurdaspur district on Friday saying that he had been seen in Punjab.
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