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Atmosphere of fear in Punjab: Oppn leaders gun for AAP govt after grenade attack
Union minister Ravneet Bittu meets BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia after grenade blast outside his house in Jalandhar.
Union minister of state for railways Ravneet Bittu met BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia on Tuesday after a grenade blast was reported outside his house in Jalandhar and said that there is an atmosphere of fear in Punjab.
Since November last year, Punjab has seen more than a dozen incidents of similar grenade attacks on police stations, places of worship and a YouTuber’s house in Jalandhar, but this is the first time a political leader’s house has been targeted.
Interacting with mediapersons, Bittu said: “The Punjab government has lost control of the law-and-order situation in Punjab. The border state has gone through militancy, but even then, grenades were not used like this. It seems as if grenades are easily available in toy shops. Kalia is one of the most senior leaders in the state.”
“There is an atmosphere of fear in Punjab. It is a targeted attack aimed at disrupting peace and communal harmony in the state. These anti-national elements have chosen one of the senior leaders of BJP and key Hindu face in Punjab politics. It is a planned conspiracy,” he said.
“Chief minister Bhagwant Mann has been busy wooing AAP leaders from Delhi, who have now come to loot Punjab after losing Delhi. The AAP-led state government must own responsibility for lawlessness in the state instead of being in complete denial,” Bittu said.
“Drugs are being openly used, and even police personnel are being caught with drugs. Two groups have formed in the state- one of those who have come from Delhi, and the second one, of those who are sitting here in Punjab,” he added.
BJP state president Sunil Jakhar also lashed out at the AAP government. “ Mann has deployed an intelligence team of Punjab Police at the Delhi Congress headquarters. He said in the assembly that I have intelligence about what happened in the Delhi Congress meeting. Where was this intelligence when a bomb was thrown at Manoranjan Kalia’s residence?” Jakhar said.
AAP state president and cabinet minister Aman Arora said he had talked to Kalia over phone and assured that the accused would be arrested soon. “Such cowardly attacks are signs of panic among drug mafia and gangsters due to the daily crackdown on the drugs. Police are committed to arrest the accused at earliest,” he said.
State minister Mohinder Bhagat also met Kalia.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring posted on X. “It is getting more serious day by day. The frequency and regularity of such blasts has increased. Wonder whether these blasts are creating any sound in the deaf ears of the AAP-led Punjab government. Bhagwant Mann Sahab, wake up, lest it is too late. Punjab cannot afford yet another dark era.”
Former deputy chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal said: “Lawlessness has crossed all bounds in Punjab. After attacks on police stations, places of worship and vandalism of statues of Babasaheb Dr BR Ambedkar, now the residence of a former minister and senior BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia has been subjected to a grenade attack. All these incidents make it clear the AAP and chief minister Mann are unable to come to grips with the situation. The CM must take moral responsibility for these incidents and resign.”
