Contrary to practices in the game of politics, the Centre on Monday said it would be improper to blame the Punjab government for the Ludhiana blast that killed seven and injured 32 on Sunday. The Centre is of the view that the state administration was not provided with any specific intelligence details on possible terror attacks.
Contradicting minister of state for home Sriprakash Jaiswal, who had blamed security lapses on the state administration?s part for the blast, official sources in the home ministry said, ?It was only a general alert to all states that was sounded with festival season round the corner. No specific alert or an actionable intelligence was provided to the Punjab government. So there is no question of failure in that sense, where information was there and the state police could not act.?
Jaiswal, in his remarks, had said, ?We feel that the Punjab government is not working effectively and is not alert enough.?
Meanwhile, Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal too denied that there had been any lapses. ?There is no security lapse. The SSP and the DC had reached the spot within 10 minutes and they had arranged for medical help. The administration is also working hard to get to the bottom of this,? he said.
Moreover, the home ministry also said that investigations were still on, but no outfit had claimed responsibility so far for the blast. ?At this juncture we can not point finger to any terrorist outfit. It could be either from across the border or any of the dormant terrorist outfits from within the state,? official sources said, adding that a team of NSG had been sent to Punjab to help local administration in investigation. Informing that the explosive material collected from the blast site has been set to forensic laboratory in Chandigarh and reports are expected in a couple of days, the ministry said, nothing could be conclusively said about the explosive used in the blast. Cautioning people about such incidents, union home secretary Madhukar Gupta, said there were needs for constant vigil against terrorist elements.
?Particularly in areas that are vulnerable, where people conglomerate, there need to be security checks,? said Gupta. Main Opposition BJP, meanwhile, launching a direct attack on the Prime Minister, blamed the National Security Council (NSC) headed by him for ?failure? in preventing terror attacks.