Home Secretary holds security review meeting

Directors of IB and BSF and chiefs of CRPF and NIA were present at the meeting held by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla that lasted for nearly an hour on a blast that occurred in the Ludhiana court complex.

New Delhi: Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Friday (December 24) held a high-level meeting on the security situation in the country, focusing especially on a blast that occurred in the Ludhiana court complex in which one person was killed, and six were injured, sources said.

Intelligence Bureau Director Arvind Kumar, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) Chief Kuldiep Singh and Border Security Force (BSF) Director General Pankaj Singh were among those present at the meeting that lasted for nearly an hour in the Home Ministry. Senior officials of NIA and Home Ministry were also present in the meeting.

It is learnt that Bhalla took stock of the security situation in Punjab following the blast. It was the second security meeting chaired by the Home Secretary since yesterday. He had on Thursday held a security situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of recent targeted killings by terrorists.

The blast inside Ludhiana court premises occurred at 12.22 pm on Thursday in a washroom on the second floor of the court building, next to the district administrative complex and has a daily footfall of over 25,000 people.

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who visited the spot, had said that it was carried to disrupt law and order in the state ahead of the assembly polls.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had a telephonic conversation with Channi to take stock of the situation on Thursday, and the Home Ministry also sought a detailed report from the Punjab government regarding the incident.

Police suspect the deceased, whose burnt body was not removed from the site until late on Thursday evening as investigations, and a forensic team was collecting samples, was carrying the bomb.

Punjab Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Bhullar had said the preliminary investigations suggested that the unidentified suspect was the bomb carrier, but nothing can be confirmed at this stage.

A team of the National Security Guard (NSG) has also visited the spot, with a separate team of the NIA.

The blast occurred when advocates were on strike, and the footfall was relatively low. The explosion ripped apart a building section and was heard hundreds of metres away. The walls of the washroom were damaged, and the glass window panes of the lawyers' chambers and vehicles parked near the building were shattered. 

Courtesy: ANI