Police and forensic officials inspect the area after the bomb blast at Malleshwaram in Bangalore yesterday.
Agencies/Bangalore
A top official said a blast in Bangalore that wounded 16 people yesterday, including 11 policemen, was “an act of terror” designed to disrupt upcoming assembly elections.
The explosion, which triggered panic among locals, appeared to have been planted on a motorbike near the office of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main national opposition party which holds power in Karnataka, police said.
“The incident is an act of terror,” R Ashok, Karnataka’s home minister, told reporters as he appealed to people to “remain calm and peaceful.”
The explosion took place mid-morning in Malleshwaram, a part of the city referred to as “old” Bangalore, and destroyed several surrounding vehicles.
It occurred a short distance from the BJP’s state office and opposite a Hindu temple.
“The fact it was so near our (BJP) office clearly indicates the perpetrators wanted to cause damage to our party members, cause panic and disrupt the forthcoming state election,” Ashok said.
“With hundreds of our cadres and leaders visiting the party office daily in view of the upcoming election and heightened political activity, it appears the terrorists wanted to target them by triggering an explosion in the vicinity,” he said.
India has made efforts to improve domestic security since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which 10 gunmen laid siege to the city, killing 166 people. But experts say security forces still suffer from weak grassroots intelligence gathering.
Karnataka’s director-general of police, Lalrokhuma Pachau, said the nature of the explosion needed to be investigated further as authorities still “do not know the type of material or bomb used for the blast.”
There were no claims of responsibility, police said.
The state-run National Investigation Agency and forensic experts are “studying the explosion,” Pachau said.
None of the 16 injured, who included 11 policemen, was in a serious condition, he added.
The policemen who were injured had been sitting in a mini-bus parked near the motorcycle.
They were on security duty for the Karnataka legislative assembly elections to be held on May 5, for which candidates’ nominations were due to close yesterday.
Initially, police said it was a gas cylinder blast but later said they believed an explosive had been used.
Federal Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said he would consult the Karnataka government and the state police on the inquiry to find out who was behind the dastardly act.
“We certainly will start an inquiry. I will have an interaction with the Karnataka government and its police department,” Shinde said in Kolkata.
Security experts have warned that Bangalore has increasingly become vulnerable to attacks with a number of groups with militant ties believed to have based themselves in the city.
In February, 16 people were killed and 117 people wounded in twin bombings in the southern city of Hyderabad which is also a major hub of India’s flagship software industry. The bombs were planted on two bicycles near a crowded market.
The Hyderabad blast was the first major bomb attack in India since a powerful bomb hidden in a briefcase ripped through a crowd outside the Delhi High Court in September 2011, killing 11 people and injuring 66.
