NEW DELHI, April 15: Police on Saturday said they had detained four people in connection with the twin blasts at India’s biggest mosque that injured 14 people as security was stepped up at temples and mosques across northern India to guard against reprisal attacks.
Two of the detainees were picked up early on Saturday while the other two were detained late Friday, said a police official who did not wish to be named.
“Three of them are from Delhi while the fourth says he is not from here,” he said. “We have not arrested them. They are in custody for questioning.”
Officials said it was too early to say who was behind the two explosions, which occurred after Friday 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.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday visited the Jama Masjid mosque.
“The prime minister was here for about 20 minutes,” Syed Tariq Bukhari, general secretary of Jama Masjid’s consulative council, told newsmen.
“We welcome his visit. He told us that the restraint shown at this hour by the people was commendable and that this was the only way to defeat forces trying to foment communal disharmony,” Mr Bukhari said.
Dr Singh also visited the injured in hospital, reports said.
Alok Kumar, deputy police chief of the Jama Masjid area, said there was tight security at all Hindu temples in New Delhi.
Extra forces were also deployed at religious sites in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state, which has a history of Hindu-Muslim violence. 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. All the injured were out of danger, the deputy police chief said.
Police were questioning the injured for clues about possible suspects. An estimated 4,000 people were inside the complex at the time the two low-intensity devices exploded.
Ajay Kumar said although the bombs were not powerful enough to kill, they were intended to terrorise people.
“It was certainly a terror attack, but the group may not have had the capability to cause more damage,” Mr Kumar said.—AFP
