HYDERABAD, 2 October 2003 — Andhra Pradesh chief minister sustained injuries when a land mine blast ripped through his car on the Tirumala ghat road near the temple town of Tirupati yesterday.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu suffered an injury to his right collarbone as he headed to the temple in Tirupati, 248 kilometers northeast of Bangalore, Andhra Pradesh’s police chief A.R. Sukumara told AFP.

“We suspect the work of leftist extremists,” he said as experts inspected one of the cars in Naidu’s motorcade completely mangled by the blasts that were determined to be caused by Claymore mines.

“The injury to his collarbone is not serious and he is out of danger.”

Claymores carry small charges of C4 explosives packed behind steel balls. When ignited the shrapnel sprays an arc of 170 feet. The mines are popular among Sri Lanka’s Tiger separatist guerrillas.

Officials said another official, Employment Generation Minister Gopalkrishna Reddy, was also hurt but Sukumara said the politician’s injuries were “not alarming.”

Two other officials were in the motorcade but were not hurt, said Gautam Sawang, the state’s deputy police chief.

“Two to three Claymore mines went off on the side of the road and were packed on the left side where the chief minister normally sits. He was probably saved because it was a bulletproof car,” said Sawang, who blamed Maoist extremists called Naxalites as the likely culprits.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast. Sawang said Naidu was being treated at the temple town and there was no immediate plan to bring him back to Andhra Pradesh’s capital Hyderabad.

Activists of Naidu’s regional Telugu Desam party, meanwhile, took to the streets and smashed windscreens of buses in the pilgrimage town to protest the possible assassination attempt, witnesses said.

Guerrillas belonging to the state’s banned but dominant People’s War Group Maoist force exert de facto control over much of Andhra Pradesh, frequently attacking police and other government sites in their decades-old insurgency they claim is on behalf of landless farmers.

PWG is the largest of the insurgent outfits and it is also active in the neighboring Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa.

Naidu, one of India’s most high-profile state leaders, is best known for championing Hyderabad’s hi-tech industry and his name has frequently been mentioned for national positions. Tirupati, a temple town built in the 12th century, draws thousands of visitors daily.