Pilgrims questioned after shrine blast

Police were questioning Indian and Bangladeshi pilgrims today after a blast at a venerated Muslim shrine in northern India killed two people and wounded 17 others, police and media reports said.

The blast, which targeted the shrine of a 12th Century Sufi saint in the town of Ajmer, took place just after dusk on Thursday as hundreds of men and women broke the daily fasts they observe during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"Police and intelligence agencies are interrogating suspected people, even pilgrims of Bangladesh origin, besides investigation by forensic and state crime branch experts," senior police officer Kanihya Lal told the Press Trust of India news agency.

He said no arrests had been made.

India has routinely blamed Pakistani and Bangladeshi-based Islamic militants for a series of attacks that have rocked the country over the last two years, including several at mosques, saying they were trying to provoke violence between India's majority Hindus and minority Muslims.

However, little concrete proof has been provided in the past, and both Pakistan and Bangladesh have denied the involvement of their nationals in the attacks.