CHANDIGARH, July 9: The intelligence wing of the Punjab police had forewarned the department last month that the Bhatinda-Ambala railway track was vulnerable to attacks and explosions by terrorists. An explosion eventually took place there yesterday and claimed 38 lives besides leaving 61 others injured.

Official sources disclosed today that the Bhatinda area had become vulnerable because of its proximity to the home of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in neighbouring Muktsar district. In fact, the security threat has increased to Badal after he took over as Chief Minister five months ago.

Moreover, they also seemed to take advantage of general laxity on security front there since the area never saw any major terrorist action even earlier.

According to Inspector General (Intelligence) M P S Aulakh, there were several reports during the past five to six months to the effect that explosions could take place in buses, trains and other public places. These reports, he claimed, had been regularly passed on to the department for taking necessary preventive action and red alerts were also sounded.

Though the police has been clueless about the recent blast, Aulakh suspects it to be the handiwork of Lashkar-e-Tauba, an outfit of pan-Muslim fundamentalist organisations based in Pakistan. The organisation, some of whose activists have been apprehended and interrogated by the Punjab police, had its main Indian base in Delhi with strong links in Muslim-dominated cities like Meerut, Faridabad, Lucknow and Ghaziabad.

Some of its links have also been traced in Ludhiana.

Yesterday's blast was the fourth in Punjab since Badal took over as CM and has claimed the largest casualties in an explosion. Previous small explosions took place at Jalandhar on March 14 and at Pathankot on April 6 and June 6.However,the probes into these have not made substantial progress and many key suspects continue to be at large. The arrest of one Amritsar-based militant recently in connection with the second blast of Pathankot and rounding up of many other suspects, according to Aulakh, indicated that it was similar to yesterday's explosion though the latter was of much bigger magnitude as RDX, Potassium chlorate and sulphuric acid were used to impart it greater impact.

Blasts in Delhi and Ambala also adopted the same modus operandi, sources said. Realising the inter-state movements of these terrorists, Punjab police recently interrogated a terrorist who is in custody of Uttar Pradesh police and are trying to question some who are with Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Besides the casualties, the timing of this explosion has also caused widespread concern among different sections of population. While Bharatiya Janata Party president L K Advani's rath yatra is to tour Punjab from July 11 to 13, Prime Minister I K Gujral is also visiting the state on May 13 to inaugurate or lay foundations of four railway projects in Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.