Grenade Blast In Prayer Hall In Northwestern India Qualified As Terror Attack - Police

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th November, 2018) The Indian government considers the grenade attack carried out in a prayer hall in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab as a terror attack, Suresh Arora, the chief of the Punjab police, said on Sunday.

The attack, which took the lives of three people, was carried out earlier in the day in the Rajasansi village located in the vicinity of the city of Armitsat. Two men, with their faces covered, lobbed a grenade at the Nirankari Bhawan prayer hall, where around 500 people were present, and fled on their motorcycle.

"Three dead & twenty injured in the blast.

We are counting it as a terror act. We will find out other details in the further investigation," Arora said, as quoted by the New Delhi-based Asian news International agency.

Earlier it was reported that ten people were injured.

Security has been boosted in the area following the incident by the order of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

According to local media reports, the attack was carried out amid a high alert in Punjab over several terrorists from the Jaish-e-Mohammed jihadist group, aspiring to separate Kashmir from India and merge it into Pakistan, arriving to the state.