Malerkotla: A blast shook a locality in Punjab’s Malerkotla city on Friday evening, alarming residents and putting police on heightened alert.The explosion occurred around 5:30pm in a garbage pile near Lasara Drain bridge. The residence of former Punjab DGP Mohammad Mustafa and his wife, former cabinet minister Razia Sultana, is around 500m from the site.Witnesses said a herd of buffaloes owned by local resident Amir Hamza was grazing nearby when the explosion happened, ripping up a buffalo’s stomach and blowing a leg off. While police, bomb disposal and forensic teams rushed to the site, so did a team of vets to save the animal.Malerkotla SSP Gurmeet Singh and Amargarh DSP Sanjeev Kapoor supervised the investigation on site. The area has been cordoned off.During initial inquiries, locals said that a similar blast had occurred at the same garbage dump exactly a year earlier. “We are examining every possibility. The fact that this is the second incident at this location in two years is central to our probe,” the SSP said. At first glance, it doesn’t look like sabotage, he said, adding that the forensic report will make things clear.Barely 10 days ago, blasts had occurred near security installations in Jalandhar and Amritsar.
