Police found 19 unexploded bombs in a southern Indian city
Sunday after at least 43 people were killed Saturday in blasts
blamed on Islamic militants based in other countries.
New Delhi has sent extra police and special bomb detection
equipment to Hyderabad, an IT hub with a history of Muslim-Hindu
tensions, after bombs packed with metal pellets exploded at a food
center and an amusement park on Saturday night.
About 80 people were wounded by the three blasts that went off
within minutes of each other.
Police discovered the unexploded bombs - most fitted with timers
and placed in plastic bags - at bus stops, by cinema halls, road
junctions and pedestrian bridges and near a public water tap across
the capital of Andhra Pradesh state.
The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Sunday pointed to Islamist
militant groups in neighboring countries.
"As things stand today the available information points to
that," Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy told a news conference.
A federal home ministry official said about 22 people were being
questioned. Separately, police reported one man had been detained
near Hyderabad on suspicion of selling bicycle ball-bearings that
were used as pellets in the bombs.
Reddy said 40 people had died, including three children, while
the state home minister and police put the toll at 43.
Relatives cry over
the bodies of Saturday's blast victims, who were killed in an
eatery, at their residence in Hyderabad on Sunday.
In May, 11 Muslim worshippers were killed and five shot in
subsequent clashes with police after a bomb went off at a historic
mosque in Hyderabad.
At a private hospital where several of the wounded were
admitted, anxious relatives looked weary after spending the night
sitting in plastic chairs in the waiting hall.
"I had gone shopping with my mother and we stopped to eat," said
Pawan Aggarwal from a hospital bed. He was being treated for
injuries from the blast at the fast-food center. His mother, unhurt
from the attacks, had maintained a vigil overnight.
"We were somewhat lucky - we saw so many people dead. There was
blood everywhere," he added.
India has faced several large-scale bomb attacks in its big
cities over the past two years, including in Mumbai and New Delhi.
Hundreds were killed.
Saturday's blasts were designed to kill as many people as
possible.
"The metal pellets in the bombs worked as deadly missiles,
killing more people," said Dr K. Shastry, a senior doctor at a
large hospital that received many dead and wounded.
Police patrols were visible in the city as August 26 is seen as
an auspicious day for Hindus and thousands of marriages were
planned.
At a city morgue, sobbing relatives and friends of victims held
onto each other while standing outside, waiting for police to call
them in to identify bodies, many mutilated.
"They had come to shop and had stopped for a bite. Now they are
all gone," said Bhaskar, 41, a family friend of two teenage girls
and a young woman who died at the food center.
(China Daily via agencies August 27, 2007)
