Blast at cinema hall in Ludhiana, 7 killed

The victims were mainly migrants from other states who were watching a 7 pm show of Bhojpuri film Janam Janam Ka Saath at Shringaar Cinema. There are two more cinema halls in the building.

The condition of 23 of those injured, admitted to CMC Hospital, was stated to be serious.

Ludhiana Range DIG Ishwar Singh said the bomb appeared to have been placed in the first three rows of seats. “At the moment it cannot be said if it was RDX or something else,” he added. The blast site was splattered with blood and body parts and a huge crater marked the spot.

The Union Home Ministry reacted with caution, saying it needed more information before concluding if this was a terror strike. “We are monitoring the situation and waiting for more details,” a spokesperson said.

What is worrying the security and intelligence machinery is not just that the blast closely follows the Ajmer explosion but that if it were a terror attack, it would be the first such strike in Punjab in a long time and the very first for Ludhiana, the industrial city that also houses a large number of migrant workers.

Investigators will also have to determine whether the blast is the handiwork of Islamist terror groups or if a dormant Punjab militant organisation has become active again.

Former Punjab Director General of Police K P S Gill maintained that planting of explosive devices in a cinema hall meant that it was most likely a terror strike and his suspicions would go to the Babbar Khalsa International or the Khalistan Zindabad Force.

But the role of Islamic groups could not be ruled out since militants groups in Punjab and in Jammu and Kashmir have been in touch in the past, he pointed out.

The Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Maulana Habib Ur Rehman Ludhianvi, issued a statement condemning the incident. Apprehending a foreign hand, he said: “Maybe the ISI of Pakistan is behind this blast. But communal harmony is very strong here and will continue to be. Like Ajmer Sharif, the people of Ludhiana will also bravely fight this tragedy.”

Another line of investigation likely to be followed is the seizure just last month of 3.5 kg of RDX from a Maruti Esteem belonging to the son of a former militant in Ludhiana a day before Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s visit to the city. Police officers alleged at the time that Gurpreet, who is absconding, had gone to Malaysia about a month earlier and had made a detour to Lahore, where he contacted Wadhawa Singh, chief of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), and collected the RDX.

As per Punjab Police records, some 134.316 kg of RDX have been seized from the state between 2002 and August 2007. The biggest haul, of 51.715 kg, was made in 2005.

Police claim the explosive finds its way to Punjab from Pakistan through the J-K border, and is being sent by Wadhawa Singh; Paramjit Singh Panjwar of the Khalistan Commando Force; and Ranjit, alias Neeta of the Khalistan Zindabad Force, who are based in Pakistan.

The eyewitnesses, admitted in hospitals across the city, are in shock. “The blast occurred right after the interval. We had just returned to our seats when a powerful blast shook the theatre. Immediately after that, the second explosion took place. There was so much smoke that we couldn’t see anything,” said Riyasat Ali, who was sitting in the box at the back of the theatre.

Mohd Irshad recalls the chaos that followed. “There was a stampede-like situation as the crowd gathered at the exit tried to get out of the theatre. Most of us were injured while trying to run out,” he says. There was chaos at the hospitals as well as families searched anxiously for news. A 12-year-old girl could be seen roaming helpless around the CMC Hospital trying to know more about her injured father.

Incidentally, the last time a cinema theatre saw a major attack was in May 2005 when explosions rocked two halls in Delhi screening a film groups in Punjab claimed hurt their religious sentiments. Jagtar Singh Hawara, also an accused in the Beant Singh assassination case, had masterminded that strike. His recent conviction could also have led to the Ludhiana strike, some feel.