Double blast rocks Indian city, at least 12 dead

Published on 21/02/2013 15:42

A DOUBLE bomb blast in a crowded shopping area of the southern Indian city of Hyderabad killed at least 12 people and wounded scores more yesterday.

The bombs exploded two minutes apart at around 7pm local time outside a cinema and bus station. Shop fronts were shattered, motorcycles covered in debris, and food and plates from a roadside restaurant were scattered on the ground near a tangle of dead bodies.“This was a dastardly attack, the guilty will not go unpunished,” premier Manmohan Singh said. He

appealed for calm.

The bombs were attached to two bicycles about 500ft apart in Dilsukh Nagar district, New Delhi minister Sushilkumar Shinde said. When asked if the government had any suspects, Mr Shinde responded: “We have to investigate.”

India has been in a state of heightened alert since Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri, was hanged in a New Delhi jail nearly two weeks ago. Guru had been convicted of involvement in a 2001 attack on India’s parliament in which 14 people, including five gunmen, died.

Many in Indian-ruled ­Kashmir believe Guru did not receive a fair trial, and the secrecy with which the execution was carried out fuelled anger in a disputed ­region where anti-India sentiment runs deep.