Days after two back-t-back sacrilege incidents, a blast inside a court complex in Ludhiana on Thursday afternoon killed two and left several others injured.

The blast reportedly took place at 12:22 pm inside a bathroom on the second floor of the building. The explosion damaged the walls of the bathroom and ripped through a section of the building, besides shattering glass in nearby rooms. The district court was crowded and functioning when the explosion took place.

In visuals, injured people were carried out of the building and police were trying to remove people from the complex. Two of the injured people are women and three men.

Ludhiana Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said a person whose body was found at the place where the blast took place at Ludhiana District and Sessions Court complex was probably “either carrying explosive or was very near to it”.

Connecting the sequence of the unfortunate attempts of recent incidents of sacrilege and bomb blasts in the Ludhiana court complex, Chief Minister Charanjit Channi said all this indicates to several forces actively involved to create disturbances in the border state for their vested interests.

“Everybody knows the timing and the handiwork of those forces, as the Assembly polls are drawing nearer with every passing day, which was hell-bent upon to hatch such conspiracies to disturb the hard-earned peace and harmony in the state,” he said.

Drawing a parallel between the registration of an FIR against the Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia and the bomb blast as well as the recent sacrilege incidents, Channi questioned as to why such a horrendous incident took place only after Majithia was cornered by the law.

Contending that there are some anti-Punjab forces who want to disrupt the peace of the state, he also said why all beadbis (sacrilege) and blasts are happening just after Majithia was booked.

“We are also probing this angle to the recent dastardly acts that have been perpetrated”, said the CM.

Former Punjab Chief Minister and Punjab Lok Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh said Punjab police should investigate the incident thoroughly.

Former CM Parkash Singh Badal said incidents of sacrilege and violence in the state had a direct link with the writing on the wall about the outcome of the 2022 Assembly polls.

The SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said the bomb blast at Ludhiana was a direct fallout of the conspiracies being hatched to destabilise the peace of the state.

“First sacrilege, now blast. Some people want to destroy the peace in Punjab but we will not allow such plans to succeed. We should stand together,” tweeted Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.