Twin Bombings In India Kill At Least 37

Dozens Injured In Pair Of Explosions In Crowded Public Areas

(AP)  A pair of bombings tore through crowded public areas in this southern city Saturday night, one of them destroying one of Hyderabad's most popular family restaurants, killing at least 37 people and wounding about 50, officials said.

Security forces were put on alert and thousands of police and paramilitary Rapid Action Force officers were deployed across the city, which has long been plagued by Hindu-Muslim tensions and occasional violence between the two communities.

The blasts — one in a park during a laser show, and one in the crowded restaurant — went off minutes apart, officials said.

A third bomb was later found under a footbridge and defused in the city's busy Bilsukh Nagar commercial area, and another in a movie theater in the Narayanguba neighborhood, a police official said on condition of anonymity. Late-night movie showings were then cancelled across the city.

"This is a terrorist act," Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the chief minister for Andhra Pradesh state, where Hyderabad is located, told reporters, urging people to remain calm.

K. Jana Reddy, the state home minister, said at least 37 people had been killed — most in the restaurant, Gokul Chat, in the city's Kothi market, and the remainder at the laser show in Lumbini park.

About 50 people were injured, he said.

Both spots are popular with both Hindus and Muslims.

The restaurant was completely destroyed by the bomb, which had been placed at the entrance. Hours afterward, blood-covered tin plates and broken glasses littered the road outside. At the outdoor auditorium where the show was held, large pools of blood and dead bodies could be seen lying between rows of seats punctured by shrapnel. Some seats were hurled 100 feet away by the force of the bomb.

Police officers with flashlights and sniffer dogs were searching under chairs looking for more explosive devices.

"We heard the blast and people started running out past us. Many of them had blood streaming off them," said P.K. Verghese, the security manager at the laser show. "It was complete chaos. We had to remove the security barriers so people could get out."

Hyderabad is a city of 7 million people, about 40 percent of them Muslim. India, which has more than 1.1 billion people, is about 80 percent Hindu and 13 percent Muslim.

In May, a bomb at a historic Hyderabad mosque killed 11 people. Another five people died in clashes that erupted after that blast between security forces and Muslim protesters angered by what they said was a lack of police protection.

There has been little progress in the investigation into that bombing, though Indian media reports say investigators suspect Muslim militants were to blame. Underlying the divide, Muslim leaders have said they do not trust local police to handle the investigation into the bombing.

A series of terrorist bombings have ripped across India in the past two years. In July 2006, bombs in seven Mumbai commuter trains killed more than 200 people. Those bombings have been blamed on Pakistan-based Muslim militants.

While authorities often blame Muslim militants for blasts, there were no immediate accusations against Islamic groups in connection with the Saturday blasts.

Much of India's Hindu-Muslim animosity is rooted in disputes over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Among those arrested in connection with the Mumbai train bombings were alleged members of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, or Army of the Pure, one of more than a dozen Islamic insurgent groups fighting to oust India from Muslim-majority Kashmir.

Kashmir is divided between India and mostly Muslim Pakistan, with both claiming it in its entirety. The rebels want Kashmir's independence or merger with Pakistan.

The 17-year Kashmir insurgency has killed more than 68,000 people. In recent years, the militants have increasingly staged attacks on Indian targets outside the Himalayan region.

[mcvet]

AND AS PREDICTED...THE LIBERALS HAD ARRIVED...let the terrorist propaganda begin. By the way...i dont hear much from your allied front..the EU, the UN and Amnesty International anymore..learn from them..move along and accept who is killing who.
Posted by xzavierbrown at 03:19 PM : Aug 25, 2007

YOU have such a very short memory... that''s probably the reason you are a Fascist!! From day one.. day one of this mess, LIBERALS have been right. They were RIGHT about Bush and Iraq, everything they said would happen DID! These are your NEIGHBORS and FELLOW CITIZENS Sparky! At least be honorable enough to admit they were right! You should also, give them an appology for your "Base''s" claim that THEY were responsible for 9/11, it would go a long way in restoring this nation and uniting the people. Sieg Heil Y''all.

[mcvet]

One has to be either be on drugs or a mental re **** to understand your point. your cybername is proof enough that you are here to bash conservatives..only your dumb arse would fail to see that.
Posted by xzavierbrown at 09:23 PM : Aug 25, 2007

Sparky, I hate to break this to you but YOU passed Conservative YEARS ago and have blazed a trail straight into Joe McCarthy Fascism. Anyone on here for years and years that doesn''t believe as you do is a "Liberal" and YOU totally ignore the definiation of the word. That''s why the Most Imcompetent President in our history faces the Swastika everywhere he goes and why I always end my post with, SIEG HEIL BUSH! You need a HISTORY class more than anything. If you take that class you will find that using the force of Government and our police to impose YOUR beliefs on America will result in what you have today! Sieg Heil Bush!!

[rushlimpdrug]

xzavierbrown - define conservative

[xzavierbrown]

whatever, dude.
I''''d explain but you''''d need to implant a brain cell.
Posted by rushlimpdrug at 03:53 PM : Aug 25, 2007
+ report abuse


*******
One has to be either be on drugs or a mental re **** to understand your point. your cybername is proof enough that you are here to bash conservatives..only your dumb arse would fail to see that.

[j-whitman]

ndjam,,, Not going to happen --- Bush has disrupted & destabilized that entire part of the world..... And these friggin morons complaind about Clinton''s B.J. & refuse to stop Bush from further dishonoring our country.

[j-whitman]

Twins ??? How cute,, Take more durgs & you can get quads....... Oh, they are talking about bombs... Take more drugs anyway Bush

[ndjam]

This violence must stop. All violence must be condemned strongly. Hyderabad is a holy and sacred place to both muslims and hindus, lets call for evelasting peace there..

[toolmangler-2009]

It doesn''t matter where you live, the bombing will only get worse and then He will come and bring peace to the world. No! I am not talking about Jesus Christ, Nor am I talking about GOD or Allah. I am not even talking about the Anti_Christ, I ''AM" talking about "Big Brother". Every religious zealot in the world thinks that by forcing GODS hand that they can ''make'' him come now and end their suffering, Stupid jerks! They don''t know that GOD will do whatever ''he'' has in mind when ''he'' wants to, not when they want him to.I am a Christian and have studied the words of GOD, not the words that the one that organized religion tries to force down our throats but the words given by the only GOD that ever did something for ''ME'' without being asked. He gave his human body to die for me, no other GOD has done that. (thats all the preaching) Big Brother has been envisioned by Goerge Orwell and is being brought to life by Bushy_baby and his cohorts. The NWO (globalization) is at this moment being shove in our faces by CAFTA, NAFTA and a whole lot of other things that Bushy_baby is ''AFTA". Don''t look for the borders to be secured, that will never happen. The war is a ruse to keep us from seeing what they (the Gumint) are doing with the hand behind their backs. Otherwise whistleblowers would be praised not jailed and terrorised by the Politicians that are supposed to see this happening and stop it with out waiting to be told.

[gkc99]

There is no country in the world that shares a border with a "Muslim land" that is not under assault from these "peace lovers." The Muslims will not let you live until you put your face in the dirt and pray to the Muslim god who lives in a rock in Saudi Arabia.

[rushlimpdrug]

WOW YOUR NAME SAYS IT ALL ABOUT YOUR OWN SHIIIIIT
Posted by xzavierbrown

whatever, dude.
I''d explain but you''d need to implant a brain cell.

[xzavierbrown]

xzavierbrown - skrew your "liberal" krap.
Go back to your jihad camp.
I am totally sick of krap like you writing lib against conserv shiit.
It is people like you that have contributed to the continued division of America.
Go back to wherever the helll country you and those terrorist thinkers like you came from and blow yourselves up as a group.
Posted by rushlimpdrug at 03:05 PM : Aug 25, 2007
+ report abuse
the muslim diplomats had arrived!! the liberals are next to follow.
Posted by xzavierbrown at 02:53 PM : Aug 25, 2007
report abuse

*****

AND AS PREDICTED...THE LIBERALS HAD ARRIVED...let the terrorist propaganda begin. By the way...i dont hear much from your allied front..the EU, the UN and Amnesty International anymore..learn from them..move along and accept who is killing who.

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by rushlimpdrug at 03:05 PM : Aug 25, 2007
+ report abuse

*****

SICK AND TIRED OF WRITING LIB AGAINST CONVSERVATIVE SHIIIT???

what is your cybername again??RUSHLIMDRUG.....

WOW YOUR NAME SAYS IT ALL ABOUT YOUR OWN SHIIIIIT

[rushlimpdrug]

xzavierbrown - skrew your "liberal" krap.
Go back to your jihad camp.
I am totally sick of krap like you writing lib against conserv shiit.
It is people like you that have contributed to the continued division of America.
Go back to wherever the helll country you and those terrorist thinkers like you came from and blow yourselves up as a group.

[xzavierbrown]

the muslim diplomats had arrived!! the liberals are next to follow.