Blast toll rises to 16; expert teams rushed to Hyderabad
22 Feb 2013
The toll in the double bomb blast in the Andhra Pradesh capital of Hyderabad rose to 16 today, with one of the 118 injured succumbing.
The first blast took place around 7 pm near a tiffin centre opposite Venkatadri movie theatre and the second near Konark theatre.
It has been so far established that the blasts were caused by improvised explosive devices strapped on two bicycles parked in a busy area. Hyderabad police said that the IEDs comprised ammonium nitrate mixed with other explosives, along with shrapnel.
Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde rushed to the site almost immediately, and is expected to face a grilling in Parliament later today.
On Thursday, Shinde naively said it was not certain that the blasts could be attributed to a terror attack. This raised some sniggers, as people asked what else it could be.
But perhaps Shinde meant that he was not holding the usual suspect Pakistan for the attacks; it could have been a domestic group.
