{"id":353547,"date":"2025-04-17T00:16:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T05:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=353547"},"modified":"2025-04-29T00:21:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T05:51:27","slug":"mann-faces-oppn-heat-over-grenade-attack-at-bjp-leaders-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/mann-faces-oppn-heat-over-grenade-attack-at-bjp-leaders-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Mann faces oppn heat over grenade attack at BJP leader\u2019s house"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>The April 8 grenade attack on the house of a senior BJP leader in Punjab has given fresh stock of ammunition to opposition to pound the ruling AAP which is already struggling to fight several back-to-back events undermining law and order in state in the recent past.\u00a0 A report by <strong>Rajesh Moudgil<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"293\" height=\"172\" src=\"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2025\/04\/Rajesh-Moudgil-Kalia.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-353548\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Punjab police\u2019s quick action in cracking the shocking case of the April 8 hand-grenade attack at the senior BJP leader\u2019s house in Jalandhar notwithstanding, the incident has given fresh ammunition to all the opposition parties to take on chief minister Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, afresh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For, this grenade attack comes around a time when the Punjab police is already fighting for its image over incidents like a brutal assault of serving army officer in Patiala by its allegedly &#8220;drunk\u2019\u2019 12 personnel, involvement of a woman cop, popular for her lavish lifestyle and reels on Instagram, in a drug case in Bathinda and a gruesome killing of its own sub-inspector during a violent clash involving a Sarpanch belonging to AAP in a Tarn Taran village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though the brave sub-inspector, Charanjit Singh, had rushed to the spot to mediate a violent clash between two groups of villagers, the dispute was said to be about 10 days old, a group of villagers, led by the accused sarpanch, snatched the service revolver from the SI and shot him dead. Head constable Harvinder Singh was also hurt in the violent clash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It may be recalled that on April&nbsp;8, last, a massive explosion occurred at the residence of senior BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia, after some unidentified miscreants lobbed a grenade at his residence. While no one was hurt, the blast badly damaged the side door and shattered the window panes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Special Director General of Police (Special DGP), Law and Order, Arpit Shukla, said the preliminary investigations revealed the blast was masterminded by a Pak-ISI backed terror module to disrupt communal harmony in Punjab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, all the opposition parties hit out at the chief minister Mann-led AAP government for such incidents and sought his resignation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Union minister Ravneet Bittu said there is an atmosphere of fear in the state and the AAP government has lost control of the law and order situation in Punjab. \u201cThe border state has seen militancy but even during that period, grenades were not used like this as now&nbsp;it seems as if grenades are easily available in toy shops,\u201d he alleged.&nbsp;State BJP chief Sunil Jakhar also lambasted the AAP government for the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa also took to X to say: &#8220;The grenade attack on Shri Manoranjan Kalia\u2019s residence is a stark reminder of the escalating violence in Punjab under CM @BhagwantMann\u2019s tenure. Since he assumed office there have been multiple blasts\u2026..This pattern underscores a significant lapse in maintaining law and order. If the Chief Minister @BhagwantMann cannot ensure the safety of citizens, he should step down\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SAD leader Sukhbir Badal alleged that lawlessness has crossed all bounds in Punjab. The CM must take moral responsibility for these incidents and resign immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the 16<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;attack since September 24, 2024, the first being when a grenade was hurled at a Sector 10 house in Chandigarh in which involvement of gangster Happy Passia and Pakistan-based terrorist Harwinder Singh Rinda, is suspected<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nov 23, 2024: An improvised explosive device planted at Ajnala police station<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nov 29, 2024: An explosion took places near an abandoned police check post in Gurbaksh Nagar, Amritsar<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dec 2, 2024: A grenade attack attempted at Ansaro police post, Nawanshahr, though the grenade did not go off<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dec 4, 2024: A grenade explosion shattered windows of a police station in Majitha<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dec 13, 2024:&nbsp;A grenade thrown near Ghania Ke Bangar police station, Batala, but it did not&nbsp; explode<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dec 17, 2024: An explosion took place near Islamabad police station, Amritsar<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dec 18, 2024: Grenade blast reported near Bakshiwala police check post in Kalanaur, Gurdaspur<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dec 20, 2024:&nbsp;Grenade attack reported near Wadala Bangar police check post, Kalanaur, Gurdaspur<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>January 9, 2025: Grenade attack at Gumtala police Chowki, Amritsar<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jan 16, 2025: Grenade attack on house of a liquor trader Jaintipuria, Amritsar<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Feb 3, 2025: Grenade attack at Fatehgarh Churian bypass police Chowki, Amritsar<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mar 15, 2025: Grenade attack on a temple in Amritsar<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mar 16, 2025: A grenade hurled on a YouTuber in Raipur Rasoolpur village, Jalandhar<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>April 2, 2025: Blast outside Badshahpur police post, Patiala<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>April 8, 2025: Grenade attack on BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The April 8 grenade attack on the house of a senior BJP leader in Punjab has given fresh stock of ammunition to opposition to pound the ruling AAP which is already struggling to fight several back-to-back events undermining law and order in state in the recent past.\u00a0 A report by Rajesh Moudgil Punjab police\u2019s quick [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":353548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2014],"tags":[15585,16188,19602,16002,17848],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353549,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353547\/revisions\/353549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/353548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}