Man accused of grenade attack at Amritsar temple gunned down in police encounter

In a significant development, a person accused in the grenade attack in Amritsar's Thakurdwara Temple has been killed in an encounter, said police officials on Monday. The deceased has been identified as Gursidak, son of Jagjit Singh and a resident of Bal village of Amritsar while the second accused Vishal, son of Raju and a resident of Rajasansi, Amritsar, has been absconding from the spot. 

On Monday morning, the Punjab Police received specific intelligence about the movement of two accused of the grenade attack in Amritsar in Rajasansi area of the district. Acting on the information, the police team went to nab the accused. When the Station Head Officer (SHO) of Chheharta tried to stop the accused who were on motorcycle, they left the vehicle and opened fire at the police party. During the encounter, head constable Gurpreet Singh was injured while another bullet struck the turban of Inspector Amolak Singh. 

In an act of self-defence, Inspector Vinod Kumar launched firing and injured the main accused. However, the other accused managed to escape from the spot. The injured constables and the accused were immediately rushed to the Civil Hospital for treatment where Gursidak succumbed to his injuries. 

An FIR on the incident is being registered at PS Airport. After a grenade was lobbed at Thakurdwara Temple in Khandwala, Amritsar, on the night of March 14, a Forensics Team carried out an investigation and collected samples from the spot.

Two motorcycle-borne masked men were captured on CCTV footage lobbing an object, suspected to be an explosive, at the temple after midnight. According to eyewitnesses, the two men were seen lobbing a suspicious object towards the temple. No injuries were reported, and police personnel rushed to the site and initiated an investigation into the incident. 

BJP National Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla lashed out at the ruling Aam Aadmi party for what he called a "terrible law and order situation." The Thakur Dwara Temple explosion comes after at least five people were injured after an assailant attacked people with an iron rod in the Golden Temple premises on Friday. The attack took place at Shri Guru Ramdas Sarai which is a lodging facility for pilgrims. 

(This story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from ANI)