By Anil Sharma,
Ajmer, Oct 12 (IANS) Thousands prayed at the highly revered Sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti here Friday, a day after a bomb blast killed two people and shook the town. Police detained six suspects including two Bangladeshi nationals.
South Asia’s top-most symbol of syncretism, which draws millions of Muslims and non-Muslims every year from India and abroad, returned to its normal self Friday but for the presence of a large number of security personnel on the streets.
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil will visit the shrine Saturday to assess the situation, official sources in New Delhi said. He will also visit the injured in the hospital and hold a meeting with senior police officials and the civil administration in the wake of the blast that also injured 17 people.
The home ministry in New Delhi announced a special team to probe the unprecedented terror attack on the nearly 800-year-old shrine, to which Mughal emperor Akbar walked barefoot, to find out who attacked it when prayers were on Thursday evening.
“An elite unit of the National Security Guard has been sent to Ajmer. Their job will be to ascertain the exact nature and type of device used in the blast. We are trying to find if a similar explosive was used at Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid in May this year,” a home ministry official told IANS.
Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta directed the Rajasthan Police to look into strengthening security arrangements in Ajmer, located 140 km from Jaipur, the capital of the desert state of Rajasthan.
An unexploded device found in a blue bag was recovered from the site of the Ajmer blast, just 25 metres from the heart of the shrine, and taken into police custody.
“Let us see if we can pursue some leads after examining the device,” the home ministry official said.
Police sources said that six people, including two Bangladeshi nationals, have been detained on suspicion.
The blue bag found in the shrine complex contained some blank pieces of paper, detailed maps of the ‘dargah’ and its surrounding areas, some electronic devices, batteries and iron rods.
“The forensic department is looking into it,” a police official said.
Additional Director General of Police A.K. Jain told IANS that a live bomb was defused earlier in the day in Ajmer.
A shrine official said normalcy had returned Friday and thousands of people attended the afternoon prayers. “All rituals will go on as usual. The situation is normal now,” he said.
One of the khadims, or caretakers, at the dargah said he had seen three suspicious people near the tree, under which the explosives were placed, before the blast took place.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje visited the shrine Friday and stressed there was no security lapse.
According to the police, the explosion took place at 6.20 p.m. at the Dargah Astan-e-Noor, considered the holiest Sufi shrine in the Indian sub-continent.
There were some 500 to 600 people inside the shrine and hundreds more around it when the blast went off, a police officer told IANS.
Kaju Nisha, a witness, said: “My husband and I were seated at the dargah when suddenly there was a blast. Everything was shaking as if an earthquake had hit. Soon I found my husband lying in a pool of blood.”
Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Katria said the bombing was aimed at disturbing communal harmony.
“The blast was not powerful and it seems it was aimed more at disturbing communal harmony in the state,” he said. “As per preliminary investigations, it does not seem that there was any foreign hand in it.”
Officials said it was too early to fix blame. But they added that the blast was similar to those that shook Hyderabad on Aug 25, killing 44 people.