Parkash Singh Badal condemns Ludhiana blast

Ludhiana/New Delhi, Oct 15 : Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today denounced the bomb blast in a cinema hall here, and visited injured in the hospital.

"This is a very tragic incident and the people of Punjab as well as the people of India have been extremely saddened by it. For people of all faiths, the biggest challenge is to maintain peace and harmony," Badal said.

He also announced an ex-gratia grant of Rs two lakh each for the next of kin of those killed in the blast.

Meanwhile, National Security Guard (NSG) team arrived here to begin probing into the blast.

"Teams of NSG and forensic experts have reached the site and are taking into possession the material that was found inside the Shinghar cinema after the blast," said Chandershekhar, ADGP (Law and Order).

He also said that the services of army experts dealing with explosives have also been taken for a "proper analysis".

Ruling out the hand of terrorists, Chandershekhar said, “One thing is sure that the RDX was not used in huge quantity. There is possibility of use of RDX in mall quantity."

State Minister Manoranjan Kalia, who also ruled out the revival of terrorism in the state, visited the site.

"People of Punjab have already faced dark period of terrorism and they know how to give such elements a befitting reply,” Kalia said.

Security has already been beefed up in Jalandhar to keep an eye on single activity. Additional police force is on duty to avoid any kind of untoward incident.

"Security at sensitive areas, including railway station, bus stands and cinema halls has been beefed up, and special barriers have been erected to check every vehicle to avoid any untoward incident during the ongoing festival season," S K Kalia, Superintendent of Police said.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal criticized the State Government's intelligence agencies for failing to alert concerned people.

"The State Government's intelligence agencies in the districts are not working properly. There is a lapse somewhere. They are not able to inform the concerned people at the right time of where and in which place that such an incident is going to take place," he said.

Jaiswal also extended the Centre's assistance to the state in the blast investigations.

Six people were killed and 25 others were injured when the bomb ripped the auditorium of Sringar cinema hall, located in the heart of the city.

The explosion occurred at 8.30 p.m. when close to 500 people were watching the evening show that began at 8 p. m.

According to eyewitnesses, a loud explosion was heard near the front stall of the auditorium and that the number of toll would increase.

The blast follows the Thursday's blast at the historic Ajmer dargah where two people were killed and 17 others were injured. (ANI)

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