3 killed in Amritsar grenade attack on Nirankari prayer gathering

AMRITSAR: Two masked men brandishing a pistol forced their way into a weekly congregation of the Nirankari sect and lobbed a grenade into the prayer hall, and injuring 19 near Amritsar on Sunday afternoon.The Nirankaris are considered heretics by orthodox Sikhs and have long been the target of hardliners. Their conflict with the sect in the late 1970s, resulting in the assassination of Nirankari chief Gurbachan Singh, was one of the flashpoints of the Khalistan movement. said this was the first attempt, in a long time, to disturb peace in the state through indiscriminate killing. The hand of ISI-backed Khalistani or Kashmiri terror groups was not ruled out. Intelligence agencies have for some time been warning about ISI seeking to revive its ‘K2’ — Kashmir & Khalistan — plan to balkanise India. “Police teams have been rushed to raid suspected hideouts of the assailants and multiple teams are probing various angles,” the CM was quoted as saying in a statement. The devotees had gathered for a satsang (spiritual discourse) at Rajasansi branch of Nirankari Bhawan at Adliwal village in Amritsar district. Initial probe revealed that two men with covered faces, one of them with a flowing beard, forced their way into the site. They detained the sewadar (attendant), lobbed a grenade into the room and fled on a motorcycle. The blast caused a 3-inch crater. A forensic team has recovered the safety pin of the grenade used in the strike.Amarinder announced compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the three men killed in the attack, identified as Sandeep Singh, Sukhdev Kumar and Kuldeep Singh. Two of the injured are in a critical condition. Survivor: 1 attacker pointed pistol at mePreliminary investigation revealed that one of the two men—one of whom had a flowing beard— forced their way into the prayer hall brandishing a gun. They detained the sewadar (attendant), lobbed the grenade into the room and fled on a motorcycle. The blast caused a 3-inch crater. A forensic team has examined the site and recovered the safety pin of the grenade used.An eyewitness, Gagandeep Singh, who was on gate duty at the Nirankari Bhawan told TOI: “I was standing at the gate and a group of sangat arrived on a gharuka (an improvised vehicle also known as Peter rehra in Punjab) and went inside. Just then, two motorcycle-borne youths, whose faces were covered, came to the gate. One of them asked me about the function and the other one pointed a pistol at me and took me inside the compound.