Reddy fears foreign hand in blast

New Delhi/Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S R Reddy suspects a “foreign hand” for the blast at Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid mosque on Friday.

“As the things stand today, the finger of suspicion is towards a foreign hand,” said Reddy in Hyderabad. He announced that 11 people died in the blast and five were killed in police firing later.

Andhra Pradesh’s Director General of Police M A Basith, too, hinted at foreign involvement. "It could not be a job of local people because it was a very sophisticated bomb," said Basith.

Patil admits: govt was warned

Agencies report that the Andhra police suspect the involvement of Bangladesh-based terror group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), but Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who visited the blast site along with Reddy, said people must not “jump to conclusions”.

Asked if he suspected the involvement of foreign terror groups in the blast, Patil said: "We should not jump to conclusions. Premature disclosure of information does not help in investigations. Supposing if our conclusions are wrong it does not help us in the longer run."

Patil, who also called on the injured at a hospital, admitted that information had been available to the centre and state governments about terrorists planning strikes.

"What was not available was the time and place they will strike. They choose a time and a place where they can easily carry out their plans," IANS quoted him as saying.

Asked whether the same forces were responsible for the blasts in Muslim-majority Malegaon town of Maharashtra last year and in Hyderabad, he evaded a direct reply. "The Malegaon blasts are being examined and this blast will also be investigated into."

Patil said the government was trying to evolve a method to provide better security to places of worship as terrorists were targeting them to create bad blood among different communities.

Police sources said that the intricate design of the improvised explosive device, sophisticated technology and the explosives used in the blast at the mosque point towards involvement of terrorist groups. A deadly mixture of RDX and TNT is believed to have been used in the blast, which was triggered with the help of a cellular phone.

PAGE_BREAK

As Reddy visited the mosque along with Patil, he was heckled by angry relatives of the victims of police firing, forcing him to apologise for the police action.

Reddy, however, justified the police action later in the day. "Had the police not acted, the situation would have gone out of control," he said after an emergency cabinet meeting that passed a resolution condemning the blast.

While he told the protestors at the blast site that he was ready for a CBI probe into the attack and police firing, at a joint news conference with Patil he said a CBI inquiry could be ordered only after preliminary investigations.

"We have no objection to ordering a CBI or judicial probe or both but the union home minister suggested to us to go into the entirety of the situation before recommending a CBI probe," he said.

Hyderbad peaceful

Meanwhile, sporadic incidents of violence were reported from different parts of Andhra Pradesh during demonstrations to protest the blast.

A shutdown was observed on a call given by the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), a political party with a large Muslim following, and protest rallies were carried out in several towns.

While a complete shutdown was observed in the old city parts of Hyderabad and in parts of other cities, the response was mixed in its twin city Secunderabad. The shutdown had no impact on Cyberabad, which houses IT companies and institutes of excellence.

Shops and businesses in old city area of Hyderabad were shut. Banks, post offices and government departments worked normally, but state-owned buses in Hyderabad and Secunderabad were off roads.

Mild tension prevailed in Magalpura area near the Mecca Masjid, as four policemen were injured when a mob threw stones at a police party. Police in Hyderabad used teargas at a graveyard to disperse angry relatives of a man who died in the blast.

Hundreds of policemen and paramilitary personnel were deployed in sensitive areas of the old city. Muslim organisations took out rallies in Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar and Warangal in the Telangana region.

The bodies of 14 victims of the blast and police firing were handed over to their relatives while one body remained unclaimed.

(With IANS and PTI)