The death toll after two bombs exploded within minutes of each other in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad last week has risen to 16.
India received warnings about an imminent terrorist threat, home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told reporters after visiting the site of Thursday’s blasts in Dilshukh Nagar.
“No intelligence was given that in a particular area it will happen,” Shinde told Financial Times. “A general alert was given in the past two to three days to the whole country. And that’s all”.
Bombers targeted the crowded working-class district in the city, where many people stop to buy vegetables on their way home from work.
Authorities are still investigating on who triggered the explosions. Top police sources traced the attack to the Indian Mujahideen, a mysterious terrorist group in the country, but said it is still too early to say who was behind the attacks, reports The Times of India.
The National Investigation Agency had warned cities across India of possible retaliatory attacks after the secret execution of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man who was convicted of providing logistical support to a planned attack on the Indian parliament in 2001.
The execution provoked outrage in Kashmir, where many believed that Guru had been denied a fair trial.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called to the public “to remain calm and maintain peace”.
“This is a dastardly attack, the guilty will not go unpunished,” he added.
