Security was beefed to the maximum at all the courts in the state, heavy police deployment was placed in all state government offices, defense installations, parking lots, railway stations, airports, bus terminals and busy marketplaces. Police put barriers at several roads and checked vehicles entering and exiting.

A meeting of several senior police officials was held in Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon after which a decision was taken to sound a state of high alert throughout the state. A team of senior officials of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) left for Delhi this afternoon to assist the National Investigation Agency and the Delhi ATS in the Delhi high court blast case.

Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil condemned the blast at the Delhi high court, stating that the blast was an attack on the entire country and should be fought unitedly.

Speaking to reporters in Mumbai on Wednesday, Patil said that he had asked all the security agencies in Maharashtra to step up vigil and appealed to the citizens not to believe in rumors. Patil further said that Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik had visited the Bombay High Court on Wednesday afternoon to take stock of the measures and said adequate precautions were being taken.

It appeared that courts trying terror cases were being targeted, an official source said.

In an unrelated development, dusk to dawn curfew was imposed in Nandurbar district in Marathwada region on Wednesday, after communal riots broke out late Tuesday after a Hindu procession was allegedly heavily stoned by members of a minority community, a phrase used for Muslim community. Police, which intervened immediately and brought the situation under control on Tuesday night, had to fire in the air on Wednesday afternoon after an angry mob of minority community indulged again in heavy stone pelting and hurling empty bottles at the police and the majority community. Meanwhile, Shafiq Shamshuddin, a Muslim youth, was allegedly stabbed and killed by members of the majority community.

A senior police official speaking to Arab News on phone from Nandurbar said that the situation in the town was tense but under control and that additional police force was arriving from nearby districts.