By Indo-Asian News Service
Ajmer (Rajasthan): At least two people were killed and nearly 20 people injured when a bomb exploded inside the revered Sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti here Thursday evening during Ramadan prayers, witnesses said.
The shattering blast took place inside the complex some 25 metres from where the main prayers were taking place, triggering panic in this shrine in Rajasthan that is revered by both Muslims and Hindus, police sources said.
Speaking to IANS, Ajmer District Collector Naveen Mahajan put the death toll at two. He said one of the injured was in critical condition.
Mahajan gave no further details about the explosion but said the situation in Ajmer was “under control”.
Fazle Moin Chishti, a khadim (trustee) of the Ajmer dargah, however, said he had been told that three people had been killed.
One account said the bomb was concealed in a lunch box. Ajmer is located about 140 km from Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, in western India.
Fazle Moin Chishti said: “People had gathered for prayers when there was a loud explosion. After that people started running around. There was confusion. After a while we found the police enter the dargah to look for more explosives.”
As people began to flee from the site and shopkeepers all around the shrine pulled down their shutters, the authorities began to push worshippers from the shrine and rushed the injured to hospitals.
According to police, the explosion took place at 6.20 p.m. at the Dargah Astan-e-Noor, considered one of the holiest Sufi shrines in the sub-continent. There were some 500 to 600 people at the shrine, a police officer told IANS.
Additional Director General of Police Kanhaiya Lal said that a crowd attacked the police immediately after the blast and that the police were appealing to the people to maintain calm.
“We had no specific alert that the dargah would be attacked,” said Lal.
India’s Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta said in New Delhi that the Ajmer attack was a clear attempt to create communal tensions.
“I am not going to speculate on the nature of the blast and who was behind it,” he added.
Other officials said it was too early to determine who was to blame. But they added that it was similar to the massive twin blasts that shook Hyderabad in August killing 44 people.
Reinforcements were rushed to Ajmer, whose shrine attracts millions of believers, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, from all over the country and abroad.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil had warned recently that terrorist groups were planning to attack religious shrines.