Series of blasts kill 13 Indian lawyers
Saturday, 24 November 2007
LUCKNOW, NOV 23 (AP): A series of near-simultaneous explosions ripped through courthouse complexes Friday in three north Indian cities, killing at least 13 lawyers and injuring dozens more, officials said.
Federal authorities blamed militants trying to spark unrest between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority, though a legal group noted all the blasts came in a state where lawyers had decided not to defend terrorism suspects.
At least nine lawyers were killed and 45 more people were injured in three explosions in Varanasi, one of Hinduism's holiest cities, said Mayawati, the top elected official of Uttar Pradesh state, where all three cities are located. She uses only one name.
At least two of those bombs were attached to bicycles, police said.
In Faizabad, a pair of bombs killed four lawyers and injured about 14 others, Mayawati told reporters in Lucknow, the state capital. One of the bombs was rigged to a motorcycle, said R.N.
Singh, a local police officer. Faizabad is near the town of Ayodhya, where Hindu extremists destroyed the 16th century Babri Mosque in 1992, sparking widespread Hindu-Muslim riots.
Most of the injured were lawyers, officials said.
There was one explosion in Lucknow but no reports of deaths or injuries there.
Mayawati criticized federal intelligence agencies for failing to anticipate the attacks. "There was no warning to us from the federal government," she said.
Vipin Mishra, spokesman for the state's Home Ministry, said the blasts went off less than 15 minutes apart inside court complexes.
B.K. Saksena, a lawyer in Lucknow who escaped unhurt, said proceedings were halted for the day after the explosion there.
Federal authorities blamed militants trying to spark unrest between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority, though a legal group noted all the blasts came in a state where lawyers had decided not to defend terrorism suspects.
At least nine lawyers were killed and 45 more people were injured in three explosions in Varanasi, one of Hinduism's holiest cities, said Mayawati, the top elected official of Uttar Pradesh state, where all three cities are located. She uses only one name.
At least two of those bombs were attached to bicycles, police said.
In Faizabad, a pair of bombs killed four lawyers and injured about 14 others, Mayawati told reporters in Lucknow, the state capital. One of the bombs was rigged to a motorcycle, said R.N.
Singh, a local police officer. Faizabad is near the town of Ayodhya, where Hindu extremists destroyed the 16th century Babri Mosque in 1992, sparking widespread Hindu-Muslim riots.
Most of the injured were lawyers, officials said.
There was one explosion in Lucknow but no reports of deaths or injuries there.
Mayawati criticized federal intelligence agencies for failing to anticipate the attacks. "There was no warning to us from the federal government," she said.
Vipin Mishra, spokesman for the state's Home Ministry, said the blasts went off less than 15 minutes apart inside court complexes.
B.K. Saksena, a lawyer in Lucknow who escaped unhurt, said proceedings were halted for the day after the explosion there.