India hunts bombers after attacks
HYDERABAD, India: India hunted yesterday for perpetrators of twin bomb attacks that killed 14 people and wounded dozens more near a cinema and a bus stand in a busy neighbourhood in the city of Hyderabad.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said those responsible for the ‘dastardly act’ would be punished, as federal investigators and bomb disposal units arrived at the cordoned- off blast site in southern India.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the CNNIBN news channel reported a militant from the Indian Mujahideen group had told Delhi police during interrogation last October about a plan to attack the same area.
The attacks raised questions over whether Australia’s cricket team would go ahead with a scheduled international match against India in Hyderabad starting on March 2, although the tourists said the Test was still on for now.
Police meanwhile struggled to keep order with large crowds massing at the busy junction where the attacks were carried out on Thursday evening.
The bombings, the first to hit India since 2011, hit a mainly Hindu district in Hyderabad, a hub of India’s computing industry which hosts local offices of Google and Microsoft among others and which has a large Muslim population.
Witnesses said one of the crude devices went off around 15 metres from the entrance to the Venkatadri Cinema in the popular retail district of Dilsukh Nagar, and the second exploded next to a nearby bus stop.
The first explosion went off just as movie-goers were making their way out of the cinema at the end of a show. Some had stopped at food stalls when the deafening blast hit.
M any of those killed and injured were daily wage labourers stopping to pick up food at the local fruit market before heading home.
“The total dead are 14, total injured is 119. Out of this six are critical,” Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told reporters yesterday.
N Rao, a senior police official in Hyderabad, confirmed the toll of 14 and put the number of wounded at 80.
Doctors late on Thursday struggled to treat a stream of wounded victims as bloodied patients lay on stretchers at city hospitals and anguished relatives clamoured for news of their loved ones.
HYDERABAD, India: Indian police revealed yesterday they had been warned of a possible attack by Islamist militants in a bustling shopping area of Hyderabad where twin bombings killed at least 14 people and wounded scores.
The near-simultaneous attacks on Thursday night outside a cinema and a bus stand in Dilsukh Nagar district were the first deadly bombings in India since 2011 and triggered international condemnation, including from rival Pakistan.
They also raised questions about whether Australia's cricket team would go ahead with a scheduled match against India in Hyderabad starting on March 2, although the tourists said the Test was still on for now.
As investigators sifted through the wreckage in their hunt for the perpetrators, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said those responsible for the “dastardly act” would be punished.
No group
has
claimed responsibility but newspapers pointed the finger at Indian Mujahideen. A senior detective said two of the group's militants had spoken of a possible attack in the area during interrogation last October.
“We interrogated two militants who said they had recced various spots in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune for a possible attack,” said S.N. Shrivastava, a Delhi police commissioner with responsibility for anti-terror operations.
“One of the places they mentioned was Dilsukh Nagar, which was hit last night,” he told AFP.
The main opposition Bhartiya Janata Party seized on the revelation as a sign of intelligence failure by the Congress party-led government.
“If they had specific information, what was the central government and the state government doing? Why was nothing done to prevent such an incident?” Sushma Swaraj, the BJP's leader in parliament, told lawmakers. — AFP