9 blasts at Bodh Gaya temple, two monks among injured error struck the world-famous Buddhist pilgrimage town of Bodh Gaya on Sunday where nine low-intensity serial blasts rocked the Maha Bodhi temple complex and adjacent areas, leaving two monks injured. The Mahabodhi temple and the Bodhi tree, which is frequented by Buddhist pilgrims from Sri Lanka, China, Japan and Vietnam, did not suffer any damage in the blasts which shook the early morning peace of the holy town. "While four blasts took place this morning inside the Mahabodhi temple complex, three occurred in Karmapa monastery, one each near the famous 80-ft Buddha statue and at the bus-stand near the bypass," Deputy Inspector General of Police Magadh range Nayyer Hussnain Khan said. The blasts took place between 5:30 and 5:58 am, he said. The Intelligence Bureau has confirmed that the serial blasts at Bodhgaya are an act of terror although the agency refused to squarely blame any outfit. Both the Naxals as well as the Indian Mujahideen are on the radar, but the fact that serial blasts occurred classifies it as an act of terror, an Intelligence Bureau official informed rediff. Preliminary investigations show that the motive was more to scare than cause destruction. The IB however point out that the temple was always on the radar of both the Naxals and the IM. There was an alert that the IM may target it during the festive season. The timing of the blast was however surprising and it appeared to be a desperate attempt by the group. The bombs were timed at an hour when the number of people in the temple was very few. There were around 200 persons around the temple area at the time of the attack and the bombs were placed away from them. It appears that the group which planted the bomb wanted to carry out an attack at any cost and felt that the time they chose was the safest since the security was low at that time. Hence, it appears that it was a terror attack aimed more to scare than to destroy, sources pointed out. In New Delhi, Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami told PTI that serial explosions inside and outside Mahabodhi temple in Bihar were a terror attack and the National Investigation Agency and the National Security Guard teams have been sent for post-blasts investigations. Arvind Singh, a member of Mahabodhi temple management committee, said the two injured included a national of Myanmar and another of Tibet. They have been admitted to the Magadh MedicalCollege and Hospital, he said. Singh said two other bombs, one near the 80 feet statue and one at bus-stand, have been defused. Asked about the nature of explosives used, S K Bharadwaj, ADG (law and order), said they were low intensity time bombs. "We got information about six-seven months back that there may be a terror attack on the Mahabodhi temple. After that we had beefed up security and deployed extra forces". "At Bodh Gaya temple, the police security arrangements are only outside the temple while the security inside is looked after by the temple trust officials," the police said. "The sanctum sanctorum of the MahabodhiTemple is intact. The temple premises have been sanitised," they said. An official of the Bodh Gaya committee said, "There were four blasts inside the temple premises. Fortunately, there was no damage to the Bodhi Tree or the main temple structure." "In the first blast which took place near the Bodhi tree, a table was blown up because of which two persons were injured. The second blast, I think, was inside the enclosure where books were kept. The furniture was damaged but there was no damage to the monuments or statues," he said. The Bodh Gaya Buddhist temple, around 10 km from Gaya and 100 km from capital Patna, is world-famous. Lord Buddha had attained enlightenment here under the Mahabodhi tree in the temple premises.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Jul 2013 15:23:32 +0000
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