Hyderabad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - This morning the Indian Minister of the Interior Sushil Kumar Shinde visited the sites of two explosions that yesterday hit the city of Hyderabad, in the state of Andhra Pradesh central-east India, causing 18 deaths and 119 wounded. According to the senior official said, the bombs were placed inside two bicycles at a distance of about 150 from a fruit market full of people. At the moment there are no official claims of responsibility, but suspicions are focusing on a local Islamic extremist fringe.
Yesterday's attack took place in
the Dilsukhnagar district a commercial centre and home to numerous schools and
colleges. "Of
the 119 people injured," added minister Shinde after visiting victims at
the hospital "at least six are in critical condition." Most
of the dead were day laborers, who had stopped at the market to buy fruit and
vegetables before returning home.
Yesterday,
Minister of the Interior confirmed warnings that had recently been uncovered by
competent authorities about "possible attacks" in the country, but he
declined to give further details on when and where attacks were to have occurred.
Meanwhile,
following the explosions in Mumbai and the entire Maharashtra are on a state of
high alert.
Local sources reported that a
series of interrogations made by the police last year, it emerged that the Islamic
militant Indian Mujahideen group have planned a series of devastating attacks
in the area of Hyderabad, as well as Delhi, Mumbai and Pune.
Hyderabad
- one of the most populous and oldest cities in India - is a large Hindu
majority, but there is a large presence of Muslims, mostly concentrated in the
old quarter of the city. The
explosion of yesterday is the first devastating attack to hit the country since
September 2011, when a powerful explosion outside the court in Delhi resulted
in the deaths of 13 people (see AsiaNews 08/09/2011 Indian
bishops' "deep sorrow" for Delhi High Court bombing).