Chandigarh: One of the two accused in the Amritsar temple grenade attack was shot dead by Punjab police in a gunfight which broke out when the duo allegedly tried to flee Amritsar’s Rajasansi area on a motorcycle Monday morning.
Stating that the deceased accused was identified as Gursidak Singh, police said that the encounter broke out when the police, which had set up naka following a tip-off about location of the accused and tried to stop them – the accused opened fire at the police. However, one of them was grievously hit in the police’s retaliatory firing.
Amritsar commissioner of police (CP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar told newspersons that the police had received a tip-off early Monday morning that accused were spotted in Rajasansi area following which, special teams put up “nakas’’ by placing barricades on some roads in the area to intercept the suspects. However, the on finding the police “naka’’ on the road, the two abodoned their motorcycle and fired at the police personnel in an attempt to flee the spot, he said and added that head constable Gurpreet Singh was hit in the arm while a bullet grazed inspector Amolak Singh’s turban and another bullet hit the police vehicle. However, inspector Vinod Kumar fired back at the accused, grievously injuring Gursidak, while another suspect managed to escape.
The police said that while both the injured cop and Gursidak were rushed to the civil hospital, the latter succumbed to his injuries.
Stating that efforts are on to nab the other accused, Bhullar said that an investigation is also on to find out a connection with the Pakistan’s intelligence agency – Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), if any.
For record, two motorcycle-borne persons had late on Friday night lobbed a grenade at the Thakur Dwara temple and fled the spot. No one was hurt in the blast, though the explosion which damaged the temple’s wall, caused panic in the city.
