The historic Mecca Masjid mosque in Hyderabad, India has been bombed:At least five people have been killed in a bomb explosion at a historic mosque in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, the authorities say.
Many more were hurt in the blast during Friday prayers at the Mecca Masjid, one of India's biggest mosques.
Interior Minister Shivraj Patil said the explosion at the entrance to the mosque was caused by a "crude bomb".
Police say they also found and defused two live bombs near the mosque. It is not clear who carried out the attack.
The building pictured in the BBC article is not the Mecca Masjid, but rather the nearby Charminar, which is the symbol of Hyderabad. You can see the actual Mecca Masjid in the picture here. I am also in the picture, if you can pick me out of the crowd. The Charminar/Mecca Masjid/Laad Bazaar area of Hyderabad is one of the city's oldest, but it is also Muslim dominated. Exactly who would have placed the bombs is an interesting question.
EDIT: Fellow Hyderabad traveler Jason C. sent me this video report from CNN-IBN.
3 comments:
Alright, I give up. I never was good at these "Where's Waldo?" games...
- Mitch
From Informed Comment (juancole.com)
>>Friday's bombing of a mosque in Hyderabad, India, which killed a dozen and provoked riots in which there was further loss of life, appears to have been an operation by the Harakat ul-Jihad ul-Islami or HUJI of Bangladesh. The sim cards used in the phones that set off the blast point to a Bengali network. Some of the sim cards used had expired, saving dozens, perhaps hundres of lives.
So why would radical Muslims blow up a historic mosque and kill worshippers? They may have hoped that the bombing would be blamed on Hindus and would promote civil strife. They certainly were hoping to radicalize Muslims and drive them to join HUJI. Attacking Muslims is seen by the radicals as a way of radicalizing Muslims. They grossly misjudged their public in this case, since Muslims in Hyderabad tend to vote Congress, the ruling party of India.<<
More analysis that seems to reflect a consensus that the attacks were by Muslims to incite strife
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0705/S00362.htm
"The people of secular sovereign India have stood strong and more resolved to peace and amity, even at the wake of repeated attacks on religious places. These have only exposed the nefarious designs of a handful of those behind these terror attacks. Undoubtedly these repeated acts of terror have put us through one of the gravest tests of courage, patience, commitment to peace and humane social order."
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=9704af2e-706b-4327-a4d9-2cd96bac1137&ParentID=6996442f-f5af-4b83-a098-ba9d6a495b68&MatchID1=4464&TeamID1=10&TeamID2=6&MatchType1=1&SeriesID1=1109&PrimaryID=4464&Headline=NRI+body+condemns+Hyderabad+blast
"The spokesperson of the organisation, Najma Sultana, said in the statement that the blast was apparently meant to disrupt the progress that the country was making and aimed at destroying the secular structure of the Indian society."
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The fact that mobile phones and other indicia of the devices were found inside the mosque seem to support your conclusion that the bombers were inside the mosque and, therefore, were muslims.
http://68.178.224.54/udayavani/showstory.asp?news=0&contentid=418211&lang=1
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