CHANDIGARH — One civilian was killed and nine others injured on early Wednesday as an unidentified aircraft crashed and caught fire in Aklian Kalan village, some 20 km from the district headquarters in Punjab’s Bathinda.
District authorities refused to comment about the crash, saying any comment will be issued by the defence authorities. Defence personnel and police teams have cordoned off the crash site.
The dead has been identified as a farm labourer, Govind from Haryana. The crash occurred around 2 a.m. in wheat-harvested fields, close to the residential area.
Eyewitnesses said several farm labourers noticed an aircraft flying low that later crashed and fell into the fields.
As the local approached the wreckage, an explosion took place that killed one on the spot and injured nine others.
“On spotting the burning aircraft, some people rushed to rescue the pilot. As they were rushing towards the plane, it exploded and several of them sustained injuries,” an eyewitness told the media.
The injured were admitted to Shaheed Bhai Mani Singh Civil Hospital. One among them was referred to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bathinda.
Senior district officials reached the crash site and the hospital. Police teams have been deployed at the district hospital.
Meanwhile, after India’s military action against Pakistani, which is codenamed ‘Operation Sindoor’, two international flights en route to Amritsar were diverted to Delhi, and educational institutions along the Pakistan border shut in Punjab.
Air India, in a statement, said it has cancelled all its flights to and from Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh and Rajkot till noon.
Authorities in Punjab have announced that all schools, colleges and educational institutions in regions along the international border with Pakistan have been closed.
While educational institutes in Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts will be closed for three days, in Fazilka district, they will be shut till further orders.
Earlier this morning, in a major military action following the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians, the Indian Army successfully executed ‘Operation Sindoor’, hitting nine locations in Pakistan.
The strikes were part of India’s response to the April 22 attack that claimed the lives of 25 Indians and one Nepali national in Jammu and Kashmir. –IANS
