In a suspected terrorist attack, 37 people were killed and over 150 injured when three high-intensity bombs exploded, including one near a mosque in Malegaon town in Nasik district, Maharashtra, India.
Police suspect that the terror attack, clearly targeting hundreds of Muslims who had gathered on September 8 to offer their Friday prayers and remember the dead on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat, was orchestrated by anti-communal groups and the device used were crude bombs.Curfew was imposed and paramilitary forces were deployed in this communally sensitive town immediately after the near simultaneous blasts that also ripped apart the busy Mushaira Chowk and Ayesha Nagar locality early afternoon.
However, the following day, curfew was lifted.
Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil, who visited the blast sites, said 37 people were killed in the three explosions.
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil did not rule out the possibility of terrorist hand behind the blast. "Such incidents do not take place on their own. Someone triggers it. We all know who they are," he said.
The blast came days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that intelligence agencies had warned of more terrorist attacks across the country, possibly on economic, and religious targets as well as on nuclear installations.
India has been on a heightened security alert after a series of bombs on commuter trains in Mumbai killed 186 people in July.
Asking people to maintain communal harmony, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who met the blasts' injured in hospitals, said the "acts were aimed at creating a divide in the society."
"I came here to see the damage caused... And above all to meet the people and give my condolences to them. The most important thing at this juncture is to maintain communal harmony...The best thing is to live together," she said.
Compensation cheques of Rs. 1 lakh, announced by the Maharashtra government, were disbursed to the families of the deceased.
According to some news reports, many blast victims vented their frustration and fury on the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, claiming that the political party did little to keep its promise of protecting the lives of the minorities and developing the locality.
"My people are telling me that there are around 20-plus bodies lying inside the (hospital) campus, following the explosions," said L.N. Chauhan, chief medical officer of the privately-run Wadia hospital.
