Chandigarh: Five people were killed and 27 others, mostly migrant workers, were injured in a blast that occurred at an illegal firecrackers factory in Lambi town of Punjab’s Muktsar district early Friday morning.
Such was the intensity of the explosion that almost the entire two-storey building of the factory collapsed, trapping over 40 workers inside it under the debris.
Police said that the exact cause of the blast, which occurred around 2 am, was yet to be ascertained as the rescue operation was still on. The injured were rushed to different hospitals in the nearby Muktsar city while some of them, who were grievously injured, were rushed to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bathinda.
The factory is said to be owned by one Tarsem Singh, who is affiliated with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. The factory, which is located on the Singhwali-Kotli road near Haryana border, was engaged in production and packaging of firecrackers.
According to media reports, the said factory was in operation for the past four months and huge volumes of explosives and other material used for the firecrackers were stored here. While most of the workers were said to be from Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh, some of them were minor – between the age of 10 to 15 years.
However, the local administration said that the said factory did not have permission to run, even though its owner had applied for permission under Explosives Rules 2008 and that the permission had yet not been given as reports from various departments were yet to come. The deputy commissioner Abhijeet Kaplish, however, held that strictest action will be taken against the guilty as per the law.
Meanwhile, media reports said that agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, who is MLA from Lambi, condemned the incident and said that while the factory owner Tarsem Singh was a supporter of the AAP, it does not permit anyone to engage in illegal activity.
Shiromani Akali Dal Sukhbir Badal, also condemned the incident and sought a thorough investigation into the incident and immediate compensation to the victims’ families.
