Blast near army cantt area in Amritsar, hours after explosion in Jalandhar

Punjab was jolted by two explosions within hours on Tuesday night, one outside the Border Security Force’s Punjab Frontier headquarters in Jalandhar and another near an Army cantonment area in Khasa, Amritsar. Police said no injuries were reported, even as investigations into both incidents gathered pace.

The first blast occurred around 8 pm in Jalandhar, triggering panic near the BSF complex. CCTV footage showed a sudden explosion followed by a plume of smoke, with an unidentified man seen running for cover. The impact damaged a traffic signal pole, shattered windowpanes of a nearby shop, and destroyed a parked scooter.

Jalandhar police commissioner Dhanpreet Kaur said an Activa scooter parked near the gate had caught fire. “The owner, Gurpreet Singh, is cooperating fully with the investigation,” she told reporters. Locals said the vehicle burst into flames moments after a loud sound, with one relative of the owner recounting that he had just approached the scooter when the incident occurred.

Barely three hours later, a second explosion was reported around 11 pm in Khasa, near an army cantonment in Amritsar. Amritsar (Rural) senior superintendent of police Suhail Mir Qasim said police teams rushed to the spot after receiving reports of a loud blast.

“Our teams arrived on the scene immediately,” Qasim said, adding that preliminary findings suggested an explosive device had been hurled towards a boundary wall. The blast caused a tin sheet covering the wall to fall, police said.

Amritsar rural SP Aditya S. Warrier confirmed that forensic and bomb disposal teams had collected samples and that army officials had also inspected the site. The area was subsequently cordoned off.

Residents in the vicinity said they were woken by the blast. “We heard a loud sound late at night and rushed outside to see what had happened,” a local villager said.

The back-to-back blasts come days after an explosion on 27 April at a freight corridor rail track in Shambhu, Patiala, in which police arrested four members of a pro-Khalistan terror module allegedly backed by Pakistan’s ISI.

The incidents have sparked sharp political reactions, with Opposition leaders questioning the state’s law-and-order situation. Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal criticised chief minister Bhagwant Mann, who also holds the home portfolio.

“Three blasts in 10 days, two in a single day… continued intelligence failures and collapse of law and order are a matter of grave concern,” Badal said in a post on X, adding that the chief minister had “forfeited the right to remain in office”.

Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring also raised alarm over the incidents. “Back-to-back blasts have shaken Punjab… this is deeply alarming. Who is trying to destabilise our state? Repeated lapses point to a serious breakdown of intelligence and security,” he said, demanding accountability and immediate action.

Police said investigations into both blasts are ongoing, with CCTV footage and forensic evidence being analysed to establish the nature and source of the explosions.

With PTI inputs