NEW DELHI, 28 August 2004 — Two explosions at separate mosques in India’s western state of Maharashtra wounded 18 people during Friday prayers, sparking clashes in which six policemen were hurt by an angry mob, police said.
The seriously injured have been taken to the Aurangabad Civil Hospital, police said.
The crude bombs exploded in the towns of Jalna and Parbhani, and police tightened security to prevent more violence, a police officer said. Crowds spilled onto the roads after the blasts, throwing stones at shops and forcing businesses to close down, he said.
“Additional forces have been deployed. The market has shut down and there is tension,” said the police spokesman.
“The situation is peaceful but tense,” he added.
He did not say whom police suspected, but attacks on religious places often lead to sectarian violence in this nation of more than one billion people.
The state government minister, Arif Khan, said a curfew had been imposed in the city of Jalna.
“The situation in both Jalna and Parbhani is under control and senior police officials are headed to both places,” Khan told reporters. Jalna is 360 km northeast of Bombay. Parbhani is 425 km northeast of Bombay.
Over the past two years, at least 65 people have been killed and nearly 300 wounded in seven bomb blasts in Bombay.
With Maharashtra due to go for assembly polls in October, it is suspected that the blasts were politically motivated by hard-liners for inciting communal violence in the state and polarizing the vote-bank along religious lines.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated development, the imam of Jama Masjid yesterday gave a call for Muslims to unite against the US, Britain and Israel for what he described as their repeated attacks on Islam. Criticizing the bombings by US warplanes on the Iraqi city of Najaf at his weekly address, Syed Ahmad Bukhari warned that if Muslims did not unite and rise, their religious identity would be in danger.
“America and Britain are the two great terrorists of the world out to wipe out Islam and Muslims in the name of eliminating terrorism,” Bukhari said in a 40-minute speech dedicated entirely to the condemnation of the US-led offensive on Iraq.
“If America and Israel have the right to their defense, then Muslims of the world, including those in Iraq and Palestine, have the right to defense,” thundered Bukhari, speaking in the mosque complex in the city’s old quarter. US forces have carried out bombings near the mausoleum of Imam Ali in Najaf, evoking widespread protests.
Regretting that Iraqi Muslims were under siege from America’s “savageness and brutality”, the cleric also bashed the new government in Baghdad.
“America has performed the drama of transferring power to Iraqis on June 28 and formed a stooge government that too is (in collusion) with the US forces.”
He feared that America’s next target will be Iran, but added that such a step would prove costly to Washington.
Pointing to his earlier call for the unity of Muslims in the world, the imam said by their silence, Muslim countries would only end up encouraging US President George W. Bush.
“If America’s attack against Islam and Muslims is not checked now, America will attack Iran one day,” he remarked.
“The main reason for (Muslims’) pitiable condition is that we are not united. If we do not rise even now, our religious identity will be in danger.”
The Imam’s speech was followed by a protest show by Muslims who walked the streets around the mosque waving black flags. —Additional input from IANS
