India News
Hyderabad blast a terrorist attack as 16 killed: police (Roundup)
May 19, 2007, 12:44 GMT
Indian Muslim activists of All India Muslim Tehwar committee protest in Bhopal in the Indian state Madha Pradesh on 19 May 2007. The protest was against the bomb blast in the 400-year-old Medina mosque in Hyderabad on 18 May 2007, which exploded during Friday prayers, killing 14 and injuring at least 100 more. EPA/SANJEEV GUPTA
New Delhi - A bomb blast at a mosque in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad that left 16 dead and at least 100 injured was a planned terrorist attack, police said Saturday.
A powerful bomb exploded at the 400-year-old Medina mosque in the old quarters of the Andhra Pradesh capital during Friday prayers.
Eleven people were killed in the explosion and five in police firing on an angry mob that gathered outside the mosque after the incident, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YSR Reddy said at a joint press briefing with federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil.
Reddy said 56 people were injured in the blast and announced compensation for the injured and relatives of the dead. He also apologized for the police action of firing.
Locals, angered over the explosion at one of the oldest and most revered places of worship in the city, pelted police and media personnel with stones after the blast.
A police official said the 100 or so personnel on duty at the mosque were forced to open fire after they failed to control the mob with teargas shells and baton charges.
The situation in the old quarters of Hyderabad was reported to be largely peaceful but tense Saturday with sporadic incidents of violence in some parts of the capital and other towns.
Most streets in Hyderabad wore a deserted look as people kept inside their homes following the incident and a day-long strike call given by a local Islamic organization, IANS news agency reported.
The state-owned Road Transport Corporation was not operating buses as a precautionary measure.
Hundreds of policemen and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in sensitive areas of the city.
There were reports of demonstrations from some towns in the state with sizeable Muslim populations.
Hindus joined Muslims in rallies to protest against the blast, IANS reported.
Black flags could be seen on several streets in Hyderabad, where Muslims comprise about 40 per cent of the city's 4 million population.
The police said they had found some important clues to the attack including mobile-phone SIM cards attached to the two unexploded devices found in the mosque premises soon after the blast, PTI news agency reported.
Both devices were defused by bomb disposal squads, averting a larger tragedy, city police chief Balwinder Singh said.
There were about 8,000 worshippers in the mosque at the time of the explosion.
The recovered explosive devices contained RDX and some other highly explosive material packed in steel containers connected to mobile phones, police sources said.
The blast was possibly triggered by a call to a similar phone in the third device, the sources said. The recovered SIM cards could provide vital leads, they added.
'It was a planned terrorist act, as you can see from the type of device used. It is a sophisticated device. We are looking into all possibilities,' Singh said. He said he could not provide any details at this stage.
Reddy, at the press briefing, said the state government had received information from the federal Home Ministry that some terrorist elements were trying to destroy peace in the state.
Patil described the attack as a deliberate attempt to disrupt communal harmony and peace in the country and said the reaction in Hyderabad had shown that those who want to escalate violence do not always succeed.
He praised the people and officials for helping restore normalcy in the area.
The Hyderabad blast comes nine months after a similar attack at a mosque in the western town of Malegaon left 37 people dead.
Indian police suspect Hindu and Muslim fundamentalist outfits of being behind the attacks on mosques and temples that are reported at regular intervals.
Security agencies said such attacks were carried out to trigger communal tension in India, which has a history of religious violence between Hindus and Muslims.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
people forget how rotted and influental the hindu nationalist ilitants are
they have killed hundreads of thousands mainly muslims in the past decades
hydrabad is strong area for them
these guys also killed ganhadi
First polish your spelling. It is Gandhi, not 'ganhadi'!! It is the Muslims who start the violence everytime. The others just retaliate. What is happening in Iraq ? You people are killing each other ! And as for the guy Sam Chowdary, it is evident that he is a Christian convert and therefore anti-Hindu. His Christian brothers are killing Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. How can you be so aggrieved if someone bombs you when you do the same thing much more effectively and on a much larger scale, killing innocent women and children in shopping malls and schools all over the world ? Whenever there is a communal problem anywhere in the world one side is usually Muslim, and the other can be Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, or whatever- but the fact remains that Muslims are the usual culprits.You respond violently to even the smallest provocation so dont get so surprised if someone hits back.
Dr. Gopinath -
If you say that more than 1 billion of humanity is terrorist than it clearly is laughable and indicates how far your brain can stretch. You say one side is usually muslims but shall we say now that it is no more true as one can accuse the other side now (hindus) ? Would it be wrong though to accuse all hindus as terrorists ?
Why can't educated folks see beyond conflicts based on arguments that are for common public consumption. We are all humans and its sad to see a civilized educated person justify any kind of killing except (at the most) for proven personal criminal offences that are tried in a court of law.
It's sad that people still have the dark age thinking.
Who cares if it is a Muslim or a Hindu organization behind these attacks. We will have more of these in the future, they are all just retaliations to some previous retaliation that is never ending. There is a systemic problem in the psyche of our people as exemplified by Dr Gopinath. Suspicion, mistrust and hatered of one another that seems to a root cause. We need to educate and assimilate all the religious communities if we are to have any hope of stopping this circle of violence.
Obviously, this was the work of extremists who want to tip the crowd to riot and push the already on edge fudamentalists into the streets to either retaliate or plan new attacks - both Muslim and Hindu.
Sounds like it was a Muslim attack on their own people to get their political agenda rolling.
It is probly internal terrorists who want to make Hindus and Muslim fight each other.
Its ofcourse the same usual modus operandi, kill muslims or hindus anywhere by orchastrating a grand conspiracy against muslim community and blame again muslims for it. How insane can it get than this!!! Then the icing on the cake: Arrest innocent muslim youth on charges of being a party to some xyz terror organisation and kill them all in fake encounters and create an eye wash for the general public and thus create an illusion of Islamophobia.
This time again, the blasts happened to divert attention from the Gujrat fake encounter case and again create several encounter victims again from the minority community. Ofcourse its high time now thats its the handiwork of Hindu extremists who would get the most political benefit out of it once violence breaks and the Indian intelligence which is profoundly communal.
Really sad to read these comments. I am just 25. What are we getting from our elders- A clash of thoughts? Where does my thought process get directed to, on reading these views.
Somebody has lost a brother, Sister, Mother, Father, Husband.....How does it matter to him/ her if they were a Hindu or a Muslim.
Please stop this kind of racial discrimination. Beacuse all this is proveked by some anti- social elements trying to spread social unrest. They are suing the same Divide and Rule policy that some invaders in the past have used.
I must also confess that, there is some problem with our unity which helps the cause of these anti-social elements.
Let's get together and not let the tresspassers succeed in thier wrong mission.
Jai Hind
son of bigots may wish for a vicious cycle of voilence to destroy communal harmony.Everyone knows except few ( son of bigots),that who are the real culprits.It's suffice to say that hindu fundamentalists have begun to feel frustrated as they are thrown out from the ruling democracy,because peace loving people want to keep them away.Bigot people always fail to understand that they are sitting on volcanos.Every action has its opposite reaction.I appeal to all my indian brothers not to follow example of dr,gopinath.I greatly admire my muslim brothers for their exemplary courage and perseverance in observing peace and communal harmony.
Muslims & Hindus have lived side by side like brothers/sister in India for centuries.
People of India do NOT let terrorists win. LIVE IN PEACE!!!
Religion is a disease of the psyche.
Ironically, there are more wondrous things in contemporary science than in all the little holy books put together. Such a shame that so many find solace (and violence) in ancient fantasies.
It is all happening again & again!! since sometime..And really really sad.. Why dont see ourselves as human beings or atleast as Indians, instead of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian etc? However educated or literate we are, are we becoming less tolerant to each other?? It is time to think in a more broad-minded way.
All this havoc at H'bad could be the result of the stupid act of some cowards [even some foreign hands?]..Let us keep our calm together and help in the resurrection with our hearts & souls too..
dr gopinath riots in india are now a common thing they appear every 2 to three years and u say every time muslims start them is wrong because when u see them they are actually started by hindu fundamentlists even ghodra riots started after hindu karsevaks were going in groups and even gave an dead line to build a temple on site of babri masjid . and major riots have appeared in india only after demolition of babri masjid by hindu fundamentlist or say they are real terrorists because more deaths of humankind has been because of riots then any other bomb blast or any other terrorist organisation
extremely sad to read these posts about whether the cause is hindu or muslim. i think there are crazy people and politically motivated people on both sides looking for mileage through these brutal ways. they must be segregated and penalised if possible. however the greater part and essense of india consisteing of mindful Hindus and conscientious Muslims must side with each other, love each other for the unique and blessed situation we are, embrace communal harmony, enjoy the richness of our blended cultures and fight unitedly against separatist groups and elements.
This is from the voice of the youth of India overseas.
may the single God be with us.
This nation is doomed. why would anyone bomb a place of worship.
All that should matter to us now is how we can get over these disruptions. I believe that there are only one community in this whole world that is humanity and anything else apart from that is void to me. Being in the 21st century people are still arguing or fighting about religions, castes, etc....it makes so sense. Come on people, leave the past behind and join hands and concentrate on building a bright and powerful future which can never ever shake our roots!! If possible try and help people who are injured and people who have lost their loved ones to overcome thier respective losses rather than beign racists or communitst like this....
page: 1
Sam ChaudhryMay 19th, 2007 - 13:49:24
It is sickening to read such captions
'Indian police suspect Hindu and Muslim fundamentalist outfits of being behind the attacks on mosques and temples that are reported at regular intervals.'
Indian police should know better, it is indeed the Hindu fundamentalist who have not only bombed and killed Muslims but also done this to the minority Christian churches and priests in India.
Who ever wrote this news report is defiantly an Islamophob.
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