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India bombs were gift-wrapped
28/08/2007 11:23 - (SA)
Hyderabad - The two bombs which killed 42 people in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad were wrapped in gift paper and placed inside rucksacks to avoid detection, a report quoting police said on Tuesday.
Police got the lead when they uncovered and defused a third bomb at a cinema hall on Saturday, after two others had exploded in a packed outdoor auditorium and a busy food stall, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.
"The bombs were hidden in a wooden crate, inside a gift box that looked like a present given on any auspicious occasion, say a birthday," police official Poorna Rao told the daily.
"But it actually spelt death-day."
Rao said he believed the culprits had used gold-coloured foil and knapsacks to avoid suspicion from the police and the public when they planted the explosives.
More than 50 people were injured in the twin bombings in the mixed Hindu-Muslim city, which is the capital of Andhra Pradesh state.
The state's chief minister said at the weekend that "available information" pointed to the involvement of terror groups based in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Indian officials generally blame such attacks on Islamic extremists seeking to stoke Hindu-Muslim tensions and derail New Delhi's peace process with Pakistan, but later present little evidence to back their claims.
- AFP
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