As per Punjab Police records, some 134.316 kg of RDX have been seized from the state between 2002 and August 2007. The biggest haul, of 51.715 kg, was made in 2005.

Police claim the explosive finds its way to Punjab from Pakistan through the J-K border, and is being sent by Wadhawa Singh; Paramjit Singh Panjwar of the Khalistan Commando Force; and Ranjit, alias Neeta of the Khalistan Zindabad Force, who are based in Pakistan.

The eyewitnesses, admitted in hospitals across the city, are in shock. “The blast occurred right after the interval. We had just returned to our seats when a powerful blast shook the theatre. Immediately after that, the second explosion took place. There was so much smoke that we couldn’t see anything,” said Riyasat Ali, who was sitting in the box at the back of the theatre.

Mohd Irshad recalls the chaos that followed. “There was a stampede-like situation as the crowd gathered at the exit tried to get out of the theatre. Most of us were injured while trying to run out,” he says. There was chaos at the hospitals as well as families searched anxiously for news. A 12-year-old girl could be seen roaming helpless around the CMC Hospital trying to know more about her injured father.

Incidentally, the last time a cinema theatre saw a major attack was in May 2005 when explosions rocked two halls in Delhi screening a film groups in Punjab claimed hurt their religious sentiments. Jagtar Singh Hawara, also an accused in the Beant Singh assassination case, had masterminded that strike. His recent conviction could also have led to the Ludhiana strike, some feel.