HYDERABAD, India, 19 May 2007 — A bomb explosion inside the biggest mosque in this south Indian city during Friday prayers killed 11 worshippers. Angry survivors later clashed with police protesting a lack of security. Police killed at least three of the protesters.
Police said more than 50 people were injured in the blast at Makkah Masjid in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state. The city, which is one of India’s IT hubs, has also long been a communal flashpoint.
It was the third major bombing of a mosque in India over the last year. Authorities fear the attacks could spark Hindu-Muslim violence. New Delhi said it was a “terrorist” attack but did not name the militant groups under suspicion. At least two unexploded bombs were found inside the mosque and defused by police.
At the time of the blast thousands of worshippers were praying at the sprawling 17th century mosque. “I had just said my prayers when there was a blast. Suddenly I was hit by a rock,” Naseeruddin, 45, said as he lay in hospital, his head wrapped in a blood-stained white bandage. “When I looked up, another rock hit my face. Then I fell unconscious,” the street vendor said. Nearby, other wounded men groaned in pain as relatives kept watch.
Another witness said the blast happened near the center of the mosque at the time the congregation was finishing the prayer. Initially, people thought it was the sound of a truck tire bursting. “But when I looked to my left, I saw chunks of masonry flying in the air,” he said.
Marble floors around the mosque were spattered with blood. A police officer at the scene said the bomb was triggered by a mobile phone. Director-General of Police M.A. Basith said that those who exploded the bomb in the mosque had used a sophisticated mechanism that was not available in Hyderabad.
A bomb blast killed 32 people in September at a mosque in the western state of Maharashtra, which police blamed on a banned Islamic students’ group trying to spark communal tension. Two bombs exploded at New Delhi’s main mosque, Jama Masjid, wounding 10 people in April 2006. All blasts took place on a Friday.
<i>Syed Amin Jafri, Arab News</i>
— Additional input from agencies