9 Days, 3 Blasts, One Target: pattern puzzles security agencies
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ May 6,2026
In the last nine days, three blasts in Punjab have raised serious concerns about the law-and-order situation and the possible failure of the state, central agencies intelligence network.
On April 27, 2026, a blast occurred on railway tracks in Punjab’s Patiala district, on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, along the Rajpura–Ambala railway line. The incident sent shockwaves across the region. One person was killed in the explosion while allegedly attempting to detonate the device.
Subsequently, on May 5, 2026, two more blasts—one in Jalandhar and another in Amritsar district—further heightened concerns. Both explosions took place outside, near Border Security Force (BSF) camps: one in Jalandhar and the other in Khasa, Amritsar.
Earlier this year, in January, another blast targeted a freight railway track near Sirhind in Punjab. The explosion damaged a train engine and raised significant security concerns.
A striking similarity across these incidents is the choice of targets. In all four blasts, the focus appears to be on central government installations—railway tracks (Sirhind, Shambhu, and Patiala) and BSF camps (Jalandhar and Amritsar). Notably, no Punjab state government buildings have been targeted.
This marks a shift from earlier patterns observed in terror-related activities in the state, where Punjab Police and other state government establishments were often the primary targets. The recent incidents, involving low-intensity blasts, suggest a possible change in strategy by the perpetrators—whether an organization, terror group, or individual—aimed specifically at central government infrastructure.
With the change in emerging pattern- shifting of target from state to central government infrastructure both the central and state law enforcement agencies are in dilemma.
On May 2026, DGP Punjab Gaurav Yadav, IPS has declared that “Punjab Police has successfully solved three major terror-related incidents—the CIA Moga grenade attack, the Sirhind railway track blast, and the recent Shambhu railway track blast”.
