India blast kills 31, injures 100
MALEGAON, India - Two bombs rigged to bicycles exploded in throngs of Muslims as they left Friday prayers at a mosque in this western Indian city, killing 31 people and wounding 100.
A top official called the blasts "a terrorist act," and authorities — fearing revenge attacks across the country's fragile religious divides — clamped a curfew on Malegaon and put security forces on alert.
Late Friday, the city's streets were empty, with thousands of police on patrol and checkpoints set up around the perimeter.
Malegaon, a center of India's textile industry about 180 miles northeast of Mumbai, has long been the scene of violence between Hindus and Muslims.
While it was unclear who was behind the bombings, which happened near one of the city's main mosques on a Muslim festival day, officials aggressively deployed teams of police to sensitive parts of the state.
"Law and order is under control," P.S. Pasricha, Maharashtra state's director-general of police, told The Associated Press. "There's a high alert across the state. We have activated all police machinery to ensure that communal harmony is maintained."
Malegaon, a city of about 500,000 that is 75 percent Muslim, is in Maharashtra state.
The bombings were intended to set off wider violence, officials said.
"It is a terrorist act. It is done by people who don't want peace," Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told a news conference in Mumbai, the state capital. Of the 100 people wounded, he said, 56 were seriously hurt.
Pasricha told reporters "the motive appears to be to create panic and make Hindus and Muslims fight with each other." He also spoke in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay.
Both bombs were rigged to bicycles, said Deshmukh. "We found packets with the explosives attached to these bicycles," he said.
The explosions came as Muslims celebrated the festival of Shabe Barat, or the Night of Fortune, when they hold night-long prayers seeking divine blessings, exchange sweets with neighbors and relatives, and set off fireworks.
At least some of those killed were beggars who came to the mosque because worshippers are known for their generosity on festival days, said Raees Rizvi, a Malegaon social worker.
He said community leaders had been meeting with authorities since the blasts, in an effort to stop further violence.
"This was to spread tension in the area," said Raees Rizvi.
The city's fear, though, was evident — with many streets empty of everyone but police, and few people willing to speak to a reporter.
The office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he "appealed for peace and communal harmony and has urged all citizens across the country to remain calm."
India has suffered through a series of terror bombings over the past year, most recently attacks on commuter trains in Mumbai in July that left more than 200 people dead. Those bombings were blamed on Pakistan-based Muslim militants.
Earlier this week, 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," Singh told India's state chief ministers during a conference on internal security.
"The situation is tense," said Nashik Superintendent of Police Rajvardhan, who uses only one name. Nashik is about 60 miles from Malegaon.
Malegaon has been the scene of religious violence in the past, with riots between Hindus and Muslims occurring most recently in 2001, when 15 people were killed.
The U.S. Ambassador to India, David C. Mulford, deplored Friday's bombings.
"There can be no justification for such heinous acts," he said in a statement. "The United States stands with India in its fight against terrorism."
India's bloodiest religious violence in recent years came in 2002, in the western state of Gujarat, and was set off by a train fire that killed 60 Hindus returning from a religious pilgrimage.
Muslims were blamed for the fire, and more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslim, were killed by Hindu mobs. India is about 74 percent Hindu and 12 percent Muslim.
Human rights groups have accused the state government, led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party — the party which then also controlled the national government — of doing little to stop the violence.
The Bharatiya Janata Party lost power in the national Parliament in 2004.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060908...GZOP3A6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-
MALEGAON, India - Two bombs rigged to bicycles exploded in throngs of Muslims as they left Friday prayers at a mosque in this western Indian city, killing 31 people and wounding 100.
A top official called the blasts "a terrorist act," and authorities — fearing revenge attacks across the country's fragile religious divides — clamped a curfew on Malegaon and put security forces on alert.
Late Friday, the city's streets were empty, with thousands of police on patrol and checkpoints set up around the perimeter.
Malegaon, a center of India's textile industry about 180 miles northeast of Mumbai, has long been the scene of violence between Hindus and Muslims.
While it was unclear who was behind the bombings, which happened near one of the city's main mosques on a Muslim festival day, officials aggressively deployed teams of police to sensitive parts of the state.
"Law and order is under control," P.S. Pasricha, Maharashtra state's director-general of police, told The Associated Press. "There's a high alert across the state. We have activated all police machinery to ensure that communal harmony is maintained."
Malegaon, a city of about 500,000 that is 75 percent Muslim, is in Maharashtra state.
The bombings were intended to set off wider violence, officials said.
"It is a terrorist act. It is done by people who don't want peace," Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told a news conference in Mumbai, the state capital. Of the 100 people wounded, he said, 56 were seriously hurt.
Pasricha told reporters "the motive appears to be to create panic and make Hindus and Muslims fight with each other." He also spoke in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay.
Both bombs were rigged to bicycles, said Deshmukh. "We found packets with the explosives attached to these bicycles," he said.
The explosions came as Muslims celebrated the festival of Shabe Barat, or the Night of Fortune, when they hold night-long prayers seeking divine blessings, exchange sweets with neighbors and relatives, and set off fireworks.
At least some of those killed were beggars who came to the mosque because worshippers are known for their generosity on festival days, said Raees Rizvi, a Malegaon social worker.
He said community leaders had been meeting with authorities since the blasts, in an effort to stop further violence.
"This was to spread tension in the area," said Raees Rizvi.
The city's fear, though, was evident — with many streets empty of everyone but police, and few people willing to speak to a reporter.
The office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he "appealed for peace and communal harmony and has urged all citizens across the country to remain calm."
India has suffered through a series of terror bombings over the past year, most recently attacks on commuter trains in Mumbai in July that left more than 200 people dead. Those bombings were blamed on Pakistan-based Muslim militants.
Earlier this week, 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," Singh told India's state chief ministers during a conference on internal security.
"The situation is tense," said Nashik Superintendent of Police Rajvardhan, who uses only one name. Nashik is about 60 miles from Malegaon.
Malegaon has been the scene of religious violence in the past, with riots between Hindus and Muslims occurring most recently in 2001, when 15 people were killed.
The U.S. Ambassador to India, David C. Mulford, deplored Friday's bombings.
"There can be no justification for such heinous acts," he said in a statement. "The United States stands with India in its fight against terrorism."
India's bloodiest religious violence in recent years came in 2002, in the western state of Gujarat, and was set off by a train fire that killed 60 Hindus returning from a religious pilgrimage.
Muslims were blamed for the fire, and more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslim, were killed by Hindu mobs. India is about 74 percent Hindu and 12 percent Muslim.
Human rights groups have accused the state government, led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party — the party which then also controlled the national government — of doing little to stop the violence.
The Bharatiya Janata Party lost power in the national Parliament in 2004.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060908...GZOP3A6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-
soft target 
