NEW DELHI, April 15: Security was stepped up at temples and mosques in northern India on Saturday to guard against reprisal attacks as police hunted for those responsible for blasts at the country’s biggest mosque in which 14 people were injured.
Officials said it was too early to say who was behind the two explosions, which occurred after evening prayers at the crowded 17th-century Jama Masjid in the old quarter of the capital.
Life at the mosque resumed its regular routine by early Saturday as Muslims attended prayers.
“There’s no panic. Everything is normal. People have been coming in for prayers,” mosque spokesman Amanulla Khan said.
Police often suspect such attacks on religious sites are aimed at fomenting violence between Hindus and Muslims. But police said the crude devices used in the mosque blast do not appear to be linked to the more sophisticated triple bombings in Varanasi last month that killed 23 people or explosions on the eve of a major Hindu holiday in New Delhi last year that killed 66.
Alok Kumar, deputy police chief of the Jama Masjid area, said there was tight security at all temples in New Delhi.
Extra forces were deployed at all temples and mosques in Uttar Pradesh state, and worshippers were being frisked at entrances, the state’s home secretary S.K. Agarwal said. The investigation into the mosque blasts had been handed over to a special New Delhi police unit responsible for terrorism-related cases.—AFP
