Hyd blast a 'terror attack'; HUJI, SIMI main suspects

The Andhra police on Saturday claimed that the blast that shocked the City of Charminar on Friday was a terrorist attack and pointed fingers at Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami or HUJI and the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) as the main suspects.

"It was a terrorist attack. Jehadi hand is not ruled out behind the attack. Investigations are on and the police have managed to lay their hands on some clues," Balwinder Singh, the Police Commissioner of Hyderabad, told CNN-IBN.

The Hyderabad police say a cellphone was used to trigger the blast. The police also claim that the bomb was a combination of RDX and TNT.

Andhra Chief Minister YS Rajasekahara Reddy said on Friday that the bomb was a "very sophisticated" device made with RDX and TNT.

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil also claimed that the main objective of the people behind the blast was to whip up communal passion and create disturbances to upset peace and harmony. Patil will visit Hyderabad today to review the situation.

Union Minister of State for Home Shriprakash Jaiswal said though no terrorist organisation has claimed responsibility for the explosion, "the purpose of the attack is definitely to disturb communal harmony."

Intelligence agencies say the mode of the attack, which was almost similar to the Malegaon blasts, points to the involvement of the SIMI. Deendar Anjuman, another banned outfit which was found involved in similar activities in the past and which has been around Hyderabad, may have played the supporting role in the operation, they say.

Interestingly, the mosque was under the protection of Rapid Action Force personnel until recently. However, the RAP personnel was shifted elsewhere just a couple of days back, leaving a big hole in the security of the historic mosque.

Andhra Police, however, claim that they had alerted the mosque authorities about intelligence inputs on the possibility of a Malegaon-type attack there. But the mosque authorities were no cooperating with them on the issue.

Meanwhile, the city was limping back to normal on Saturday morning amid strong security presence. The All India Majlis Iteehadi-e-Muslimeen (AIMIM) has called for a bandh on Saturday to protest against the blast.

14 people were killed and over 40 people were injured when the explosion hit the 400-year-old Mecca mosque in the city during Friday prayers. There were several children among the blast victims. Later, police recovered three live bombs from the mosque premises and defused them.

Eleven of them died in the blast while three were killed in police firing during subsequent protests. The Hyderabad police commissioner confirmed that two persons died when the police opened fire on a mob that tried to ransack a petrol pump as tensions in the city escalated.