Late night Amritsar blast messages keep city residents awake

It was a night full of tension for many citizens in Jalandhar on Wednesday after several social media handles began sharing messages of blasts heard at Amritsar. Late in the night, Jalandhar too witnessed a half an hour precautionary blackout, from about 2 am onwards.

Information began circulating late on Wednesday night about blasts heard in Amritsar. Between 1.30 am and 2 am, several social media handles began posting videos. A barrage of videos from Pakistan handles also indulged in disinformation posting unverified videos of attacks and blasts in Amritsar. Shortly after, purported videos of a glowing object having been seen in the Jalandhar sky also began to be shared on social media.

A regional news channel even posted that sound of blasts was heard in Amritsar (Fatehgarh Churian), Mukerian, Bhogpur among other places. While reports were circulated that a blackout was being put in place at Amritsar, minutes after this, a power cut was also imposed in Jalandhar, which remained for 20 to 30 minutes after which power was resumed. In several areas, the power cut persisted for a longer time.

It was in the afternoon on Thursday that formal confirmation was received from the Ministry of Defence that on the night of May 7, Pakistan had attempted to engage a number of military targets in Northern and Western India which included Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bathinda and Chandigarh. These attacks were neutralised by the air defence systems as per the information released by the ministry.

While unusual objects or debris of attempted attacks from Pakistan have been confirmed to be found at Amritsar (and Hoshiarpur), there are no reports of any such debris having been recovered in Jalandhar.

SSP Harvinder Singh Virk denied having any reports of such objects or debris in Jalandhar. DC Himanshu Aggarwal also denied this.

Aggarwal said, “We had been alerted at 1.45 am that there was a threat perception. Following this, a half an hour blackout was again put in place immediately. After we received information that things were normal and the threat had been averted, the power supply was resumed. No debris of any kind have been reported in Jalandhar. While there was no blackout today, intimation regarding any future drills and blackouts will be shared by the district administration from time to time if and when required."

The DC said no helpline number had been issued regarding it.

The DC said, “Repeated advisories had been released by the district administration not to spread misinformation and rely only on administration and government channels for information. Citizens are advised to rely only on official channels of information and not to engage in misinformation."

Jalandhar