Bike bomb blasts kill 32 in India

TWO bombs rigged to bicycles tore through a crowd of Muslim worshippers leaving a mosque after prayers yesterday, killing at least 32 people and injuring about 100 in India in what officials called “a terrorist act”.

Authorities clamped a curfew over the western city of Malegaon, which has a long history of violence between Muslims and Hindus, to stop revenge attacks. Past sectarian attacks have set off spiralling violence.

“There’s a high alert across the state,” MR PS Pasricha, Maharashtra state’s director-general of police, said: “We have activated all police machinery to ensure that communal harmony is maintained.”

Officials said the bombings were clearly intended to terrorise the city of about 500,000 people, which is 75% Muslim.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he “appealed for peace and communal harmony and has urged all citizens across the country to remain calm.”

The explosions came as Muslims celebrated the festival of Shabe Barat, or the Night of Fortune, when they hold long prayer sessions seeking divine blessings, exchange sweets with neighbours and relatives and set off fireworks.

56 of the 100 people injured were seriously hurt. Other reports put the number of injured as high as 150.

India has suffered a series of terror bombings over the past year, most recently carefully planned attacks on Mumbai’s commuter trains in July that left more than 200 people dead. Those bombings were blamed on Muslim militants.

Earlier this week, Mr Singh warned that India may be facing even bloodier attacks.

“Reports also suggest that terrorist modules and ‘sleeper cells’ exist in some of our urban areas, all of which highlight the seriousness of the threat,” Mr Singh told India’s state chief ministers during a conference on internal security.

The US Ambassador to India, Mr David Mulford, deplored the Friday attack.

“I am shocked and saddened by the brutal terrorist bombings that killed innocent civilians,” he said.

“There can be no justification for such heinous acts. The United States stands with India in its fight against terrorism.”

Malegaon has been the scene of decades of religious violence, with riots between Hindus and Muslims most recently in 2001.