Fresh clashes in Indian city a day after mosque blast
Sat May 19, 9:10 AM ET
At least two policemen were injured on Saturday when a mob pelted them with stones after a burial of victims from a mosque explosion and ensuing violent clashes in the Indian city of Hyderabad.
Eleven people died in the explosion which took place during Friday prayers at the sprawling 17th-century Mecca Masjid.
Police later shot dead five people in clashes with hundreds of enraged Muslims who went on a rampage to protest against the attack.
Hundreds of people were returning on Saturday after burying the dead when they started stoning the police, who had escorted them to the burial ground. Police fired eight rounds in the air and also used teargas to disperse the mob.
"Beat the police," "Allah is great," the protesters chanted.
Elsewhere in the city, an uneasy calm prevailed, streets were deserted and businesses shut in response to a strike call given by a popular Muslim group in protest over the bomb blast.
Thousands of police patrolled the streets of the historic city to avert religious clashes, the biggest fear of authorities after Friday's attack.
Police said on Saturday the bomb appeared to be the work of "terrorists" but gave no details.
Two explosions struck mosques last year -- one in Malegaon in western India that killed 32 people, and another at the Jama Masjid in New Delhi.
Investigating agencies and analysts have said members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) could have been behind these blasts in coordination with Pakistan-based militant groups.
The aim, they say, is to trigger communal clashes in India which, while more than 80 percent Hindu, has the world's third biggest Muslim population after Indonesia and Pakistan.
"One of the things which appears to have been done at many places in the country is to attack religious places so that bad blood develops between different communities," Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters on a visit to Hyderabad.
Patil said an alert has been sounded at places of worship in other prominent cities of the country.
Ajai Sahni, executive director of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management, said it was likely groups responsible for last year's blasts were behind this one too.
"At this juncture, there is nothing to suggest there is any deviation from past incidents," he said.
"Consequently, we will have to assume it is the same groups which were responsible for Malegaon and Jama Masjid. The objective remains the same -- to create suspicion that the attack was by Hindus and create a Hindu-Muslim polarization and violence."
Police fanned out in Muslim-dominated quarters of the city to prevent a repeat of the riots that unfolded after the blast, when the estimated 8,000 worshippers in the mosque poured out and attacked anything that came their way.
