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Tuesday, 29 October 2013

India detentions over Patna blasts

An injured bomb blast victim lies in a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Patna October 27, 2013
 More than 100 people were injured in Sunday's blasts
 
Police in India have arrested two men and detained several others in connection with bomb attacks on a crowd gathered for an opposition rally in the northern state of Bihar.

A senior police official in the state capital, Patna, told the BBC that they were questioning the men.

The blasts on Sunday took place near a park in Patna where prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi was due to speak.

Six people died in the explosions and 102 others were wounded.

No group has said it carried out the attacks.
'Low-intensity' blasts

Tens of thousands of people had gathered in the city centre to hear the speech by Mr Modi, who later offered condolences to the families of the victims.

Mr Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to unseat Congress in a general election due next year.

"We have arrested two men, including the main accused, and detained more than 10 people," senior police official Manu Maharaj told the BBC from Patna on Monday.

Some people have also been detained in the neighbouring state of Jharkhand, police in that state's capital, Ranchi, said.

Meanwhile, a hospital official said the death toll had gone up to six overnight after an injured man died in hospital.

The explosions were caused by crude, home-made bombs and were "low-intensity", officials said.

The first bomb detonated at Patna railway station. Six others followed, all of them close to a public park filled with tens of thousands of BJP supporters.

Mr Modi, one of the most polarising figures in Indian politics, had been due to address a rally ahead of nationwide polls next year.

He was criticised in 2002 for doing little to prevent religious riots in his home state, Gujarat, in which more than 1,000 people died.

But he is also widely admired for making Gujarat one of India's most developed states.

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