By IANS,
Hyderabad : Holding placards denouncing terrorism, people here Monday held peace rallies to mark the first anniversary of the twin bomb blasts at a public park and a popular eatery that had claimed 43 lives.
Employees of the state secretariat and some other groups held peace marches and paid tributes to those who were killed.
The near-simultaneous blasts on the evening of Aug 25 last year at Lumbini Park near the state secretariat and Gokul Chat, a popular eatery in Koti area, had killed 43 people and injured 60 others.
Parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bajrang Dal, reached Gokul Chat to pay tributes. Blaming Pakistan’s ISI for the terror strikes, the political leaders charged the government with failing to arrest the guilty.
Women employees of the state secretariat took out a silent march to Lumbini Park and paid tributes to the victims at a memorial built at the park’s gate. The women held placards denouncing terrorism and called for united fight against terrorism.
Ten people including seven tourists from Maharashtra were killed when a bomb exploded during the laser show around 7 p.m. at the park in the heart of the city. Minutes later another blast at Gokul Chat, about six km away, killed 33 people.
They were the worst terror attacks in the city’s history and came 100 days after the May 18 blast at the Mecca Masjid, which killed nine people. Five people died in subsequent police firing on protesters near the 17th century mosque.
The police blamed the Bangladesh-based Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami (HUJI) for the blasts and picked up over 90 suspects. However, they have failed to apprehend a single person directly involved in the blasts so far.