BOMBAY, 22 November 2003 — Men riding a motorcycle threw two bombs into a mosque in western India yesterday, wounding 35 people and triggering sporadic violence as angry crowds set fire to shops and vehicles.
The blast took place in Parbhani town, 500 km (310 miles) east of India’s financial hub Bombay, and came during prayers on the last Friday before Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
The attack sparked tension in the town of some 500,000 people as groups of Muslim youth threw stones and set on fire some shops and vehicles, police said.
Officials said they did not know who had thrown the bombs in yesterday’s attack.
“The situation is tense and mobs are setting fire to shops and vehicles and throwing stones in the main market area,” Parbhani police officer S.S. Khandare told Reuters by telephone. He said an indefinite curfew had been imposed to curb the violence.
Chhagan Bhujbal, deputy chief minister of the state of Maharashtra, where Parbhani is located, said two of the injured were in critical condition.
“Two crude bombs were thrown at a mosque in the Medina Nagar area. They were thrown by a pillion rider on a motorcycle,” Bhujbal told a news conference in Bombay.
“At the moment we have no idea of who is behind this. The situation is tense but under control,” he said.
