HYDERABAD, India, 2 September 2007 — Congress party President Sonia Gandhi yesterday said that the twin bomb blasts that rocked Hyderabad recently were the handiwork of forces inimical to India’s progress.

Addressing a mammoth public meeting at the coastal city of Guntur, about 310 km southeast of Hyderabad, Sonia said she was extremely sad over the attacks in Hyderabad.

“It is a matter of concern why such incidents are occurring these days. I think that these are apparently the acts of those elements who are the enemies of Indian society and nation and those forces who do not want this country to progress,” she said and expressed confidence that the culprits would be caught and brought to book.

“I only want to say that we all should together fight these inimical forces,” she said and appealed to all political parties not to allow their ideological differences to come in the way of fighting anti-social and anti-national forces. “Those who spread violence and terror do not belong to any caste or creed. We all need to march forward together,” she added.

Police yesterday arrested two people and formally named two others already in custody as suspects in the recent bombings. The four were part of a group that allegedly brought explosives to Hyderabad, Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh said. “We are trying to verify whether the same explosives were used in the recent blasts,” Singh said.

The blasts had occurred minutes apart on Aug. 25 in crowded areas of the city. Police have blamed militants based in neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh for the bombings, saying they hoped to create tensions between India’s Hindu majority and Muslim minority. Pakistan and Bangladesh have denied the allegation.

The arrests were made after one of the suspects told police that he had brought nearly 10 kilograms of RDX explosives to Hyderabad from Bangladesh in February, Singh said.

The suspect was arrested earlier this year after he illegally crossed into India from Bangladesh.

He was first jailed in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, and then taken to Hyderabad in June for suspected involvement in a blast at a local mosque a month earlier, Singh said. Details of the other suspects’ alleged involvement were not immediately available.

Before her public address in Guntur, Sonia opened the Rajiv Griha Kalpa housing colony in Rajahmundry in the East Godavari district. She briefly talked to women beneficiaries of the housing scheme. She later unveiled a pylon marking the launch of Phase II of Indiramma housing scheme at Thumuluru village near Guntur city. She chatted with women beneficiaries and also handed them allotment letters.

After addressing the public meeting in Guntur, Sonia went to the coastal city of Eluru in the West Godavari district where she interacted with the presidents of women’s self-help groups and visited an exhibition put up by these groups. There was tight security at all the venues.