‘Bomber’ dies as IED goes off early while planting on Patiala railway tracks

PATIALA: An IED blast killed a suspected bomber and damaged a section of the dedicated freight corridor railway track near Bathonia village between Rajpura and Shambhu in Patiala district late Monday night.Police said the man was planting the device when it detonated prematurely around 10pm. SSP Varun Sharma called it a low-intensity explosion. He identified the deceased as a resident of Tarn Taran but withheld his full identity pending notification of his family. Investigators are probing potential "terror module" links and the possibility of a coordinated sabotage campaign targeting the freight supply chain between Punjab and the rest of the country. No group has claimed responsibility so far. This was the second attack on a freight corridor in Punjab this year. In Jan, a similar blast near Khanpur village in Fatehgarh Sahib's Sirhind region damaged the tracks, derailed a goods train engine, and injured the loco pilot. At the site, police teams recovered a damaged mobile phone, two motorcycles, wires, and explosive materials. Multiple agencies are working to determine the exact nature of the device, with state forensic teams collecting soil samples and chemical residues to identify the explosive's composition. Freight movement was briefly suspended to facilitate evidence collection and urgent repairs. Government railway police DSP Gurdeep Singh said the rail traffic was restored within a few hours. He said details regarding the type of explosive used remain confidential while the investigation is active. A case has been registered against unidentified persons under section 150 of the Railways Act, which pertains to maliciously wrecking or attempting to wreck a train. Following the incident, security has been heightened at major railway hubs, including Ambala Cantonment, Rajpura, and Patiala, and intelligence agencies have been placed on high alert.