Jalandhar, December 2
A four-member team of Army officers today inspected the site of last evening’s battery blast in Jalandhar Cantonment and initiated investigations.
Though authorities still claim it was an accidental blast and ruled out any possibility of sabotage or terrorist-related activity, questions continued to be raised. Experts maintained that a battery-related blast could not be powerful enough to kill four. A senior Army officer said sabotage could not be ruled out as batteries were usually safe.
The Army authorities have stopped all activities near the site and did not allow anyone, including the police, mediapersons and photographers, to go near it.
Sources said the postmortem of the bodies would be conducted tomorrow. It was delayed for want of constituting a medical board, they added. Authorities are also learnt to have sought the help of the forensic experts.
The authorities maintained that the impact of the blast was such that the bodies were badly mutilated. Station Commander of Vajra Corps, Brigadier AK Sharma, said he had called ammunition and vehicle experts to probe the matter. “There have been cases in the past when batteries suddenly exploded . But an explosion of this magnitude claiming four lives is indeed strange. Experts are looking into it and we are cooperating,” he said, ruling out the possibility of sabotage or a terrorist blast.
