New Delhi: Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is not yet ready to blame the police for the twin blasts that rocked Dilsukh Nagar in Hyderabad on Thursday evening. Mentioning that the death toll had risen to 14 and that the list of the injured had increased to 119, the Home Minister said that he doesn't think the police has failed, "at the moment".
"A general alert was given to the whole country, not a specific area. I don't think the police has failed, at this moment," Shinde said at a press conference held at the blast site on Friday morning.
Shinde reached Hyderabad in the morning along with the Home Secretary and the Director General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA). He visited the blast sites with Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and other senior officials.
Shinde assured that no stones will be left unturned in nabbing the culprits. "Investigation have begun and the state government has appointed a probe team," he said. Replying to a query about inputs suggesting that a blast might take place in Hyderabad, he said there was no specific alert and only a general alert was issued to the states.
To another query about the involvement of group in the blast, he said such things can't be said at the moment. Shinde, accompanied by the senior officials, inspected the fast food centre where the bicycle bomb killed at least eight persons on the spot.
He then went to the bus shelter about 150 meters away where the second blast killed another six people and left many injured. Shinde also spoke with officials of the NIA and enquired about the clues gathered from the scene.
The Union Minister later visited some hospitals where the injured persons were undergoing treatment. Director General of Police V Dinesh Reddy briefed the Union Home Minister about the two blasts.
Two powerful near simultaneous blasts had ripped through a crowded area close to a cluster of bus stands in Dilsukhnagar area on Thursday. The blasts triggered by Improvised Explosive Devices
(IED) tied to two bicycles took place at two sites 100 metres apart outside a roadside eatery near Konark and Venkatadiri theatres in the area located on the Hyderabad-Vijaywada national highway in Cyberabad police limits.
DGP Reddy had said it was "definitely the handiwork of a terrorist network" and IEDs were used in the attack. The Union Home Secretary had said the near two simultaneous very powerful blasts indicate that it was a "terror attack".
The Dilsukhnagar area is thickly populated and traffic jams are routine in the evenings with officegoers and students rushing home. Large numbers of people wait at the numerous bus shelters, eateries and shops in the area.
Meanwhile, police have established the identity of 12 of the 14 killed in the blasts. Two of the deceased were MBA students, a release from Cyberabad Police Commissioner's office said. Post-mortem of the bodies was conducted at Osmania General Hospital.
With additional information from PTI
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