Army officials ruled out any mistake behind the launching of the rocket bombs as a mistake could happen only once, not thrice. The investigating agencies said involvement of some terrorist outfits was possible.

It was soon after 10 pm when villagers were half asleep that a lit substance came hurling towards the village, said an eyewitness. The blast was so powerful that a 10-foot wide crater was created and part of paddy being grown in a pool of water was burnt.

“I was coming home from the fields when the rocket fell merely 25 metres away, and a shrapnel hit my legs,” said Dilbagh Singh, 24, who suffered splinter injuries. “It was like a flame falling from the sky and I started running towards home. I was scared and cried for help,” he said.

Sukhwinder Kaur, another eyewitness, said her family members were sleeping when they heard a major blast. “Everyone woke up and ran out,” she said.

The incident, the first of its kind on the border during peace, caused panic, and the BSF and Army officials rushed to the spot at midnight. “We immediately rushed to the spot and found villagers were frightened,” said Didar Singh, a BSF official.

Said another BSF official, “It was in the evening that an unidentified Pakistani youth came running towards India and refused to listen to our repeated warnings that he was shot dead on border near Roranwala, a few kilometres from here,” .

The Talibans had attacked Pak Punjab Police Academy at Manwan, merely 8 km from Attari-Wagah border, two months back. “Had the bomb landed in the village, human casuality would have been beyond imagination,” said Major General Balbir Pama, General Officer Commanding, 15 Infantry Division.

BSF Inspector General Himmat Singh Gill said they were taking the matter up with the Pakistan Rangers. “We had already conveyed our strong protest last night,” he said, adding the BSF and Army were conducting scientific investigations on the shells of the rocket, which bore the sign of 07R marking.