Nilokheri (Karnal), February 2
The controversial head of the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, escaped unhurt in an attack after his convoy was “targeted with a powerful blast” on the GT Road here this afternoon.
Sources told The Tribune that high-power explosive material like RDX might have been used in the attack. Forensic experts have reportedly found at least one detonator from the blast spot.
The damage to vehicles clearly indicated that high-power explosives were used in the attack.
Following the attack, dera followers staged a massive sit-in at the blast site and blocked the GT Road. The police had to divert the traffic off the GT Road. Reports of a heavy traffic jam near Indri were also received.
The dera followers allegedly clashed with the police late in the evening and also damaged a few vehicles. The situation turned tense after a large number of dera followers, raising slogans against Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, reached the spot.
Two vehicles belonging to the dera followers were badly damaged in the blast. Two persons were reportedly admitted to a trauma centre with minor injuries.
A team of forensic experts, headed by M.K. Goyal, director of the forensic science laboratory, Madhuban, reached the spot and lifted samples.
Followers of the dera chief during a mass sit-in at the blast site on the GT Road in Karnal on Saturday.
— Tribune photo by Ravi Kumar |
The police has impounded a truck bearing a registration number of Haryana from the spot which was allegedly used in the attack. The rear portion of the truck was also damaged.
Karnal police chief A.S. Chawla did not rule out the possibility of a role of the truck’s occupants in the incident.
The sources said the police had rounded up two occupants of the truck. One of them belonged to Assandh (Karnal)
while the other hailed from Mansa district in Punjab.
Meanwhile, an official spokesman for the dera, Pawan Insan, who was also in the convoy, told The Tribune over the telephone that the dera head was on the way to New Delhi from Ambala when the incident took place.
Forensic experts and police officials inspect one the vehicles of Dera Sacha Sauda followers that was damaged in a blast near Nilokheri on Saturday.
— Tribune photo by Ravi Kumar |
According to the sources, there were more than 50 vehicles of followers in the dera chief’s convoy.
“A police escort Gypsy was ahead of the convoy. The moment our black Scorpio overtook a truck, we heard a deafening sound of the blast. There was total chaos, but no one was seriously injured,” the spokesman added. He confirmed that the dera head was safe.
Meanwhile, at least two persons were admitted to the trauma centre in Karnal tonight after the police allegedly fired rubber bullets to disperse the agitating dera followers. The protesters damaged several official vehicles. Smooth flow of traffic on the NH -1 was restored around 9.30 pm.
