PTI
Malegaon, Sep 8: Thirtyseven persons were killed and many injured in three blasts, including one in a mosque-cum-graveyard, where hundreds of Muslims had gathered to offer Friday prayers and remember the dead on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat at Malegaon in Maharashtra.
Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil, who visited the blast sites, said 37 persons were killed in the three explosions.
As tension gripped the textile town following the blasts, authorities clamped curfew and deployed state paramilitary force in sensitive areas to maintain law and order.
The blasts took place when a large number of people gathered in the graveyard to offer prayers for their dead relatives on the occasion of Shab-e-barat', considered the holiest night under Islam.
The injured had been rushed to Wadia hospital and other hospitals in the town while some of the grievously injured were moved to Nasik, sources said.
A near-stampede broke out immediately after the blasts as devotees, including children, rushed out of the narrow gate in panic with many of them trampling over the dead bodies and those seriously injured.
The whole area was splattered with blood and limbs. The devotees also helped the injured rush to nearby hospitals on every available mode of transport including pushcarts.
Manmohan appeals for communal harmony
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday asked the people to maintain communal harmony and peace in the wake of blasts in Malegaon in Maharashtra.
Condemning the blasts, he asked the people to remain calm.
Over 10 people were killed and 100 others were injured in blasts that took place outside a mosque in Malegaon.
Malegaon blasts an act of terrorism: US
New Delhi: Terming the blasts in Malegaon in Maharashtra as ‘terrorist bombings,’ the United States on Friday said it stood with India in its fight against terrorism.
"There can be no justification for such heinous acts. The US stands with India in its fight against terrorism," US ambassador to India David C Mulford said in a statement.
He said he was "shocked and saddened by the brutal terrorist bombings that killed innocent civilians outside a mosque" in Malegaon.
Twin blasts in Malegaon have killed 30 persons and injured over a 100.