Hyderabad blasts: Death toll goes up to 16

HYDERABAD: The death toll in the twin blasts in the city today mounted to 16 with two more persons succumbing to their injuries in a hospital.


"Till now, out of 14 bodies, 12 have been handed over to their kin. Two more bodies are in the mortuary. One has to be identified. 14 bodies have directly been sent to Osmania Hospital. Two more are awaited from private hospitals," a senior doctor at the state-run Osmania General Hospital said.

The hospital has received 37 people with injuries while some of them have been admitted to corporate hospitals, he said. As many as 119 people sustained injuries in the twin blasts last evening, police said.

Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who visited the site of the blast and also the injured in hospital, told reporters that the condition of six of them was critical.

Terror struck Hyderabad yesterday when two powerful near simultaneous blasts ripped through a crowded area close to a cluster of bus stands in Dilsukhnagar area.

The blasts triggered by Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) tied to two bicycles took place in the peak hour 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 Hyberabad police limits.

"The blasts triggered by IED tied to two bicycles at two sites 100 metres apart and some traces of Ammonium Nitrate were also found from the two spots," police said.

Delhi Police, along with Hyderabad Police, is expected to interrogate an alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorist, arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police from a place in Hyderabad last October.

Maqbool, who is currently in Tihar jail, had said the outfit was planning terror strikes in some places in Hyderabad for which recce had been carried out. Union Home Secretary R K Singh had said last night that the explosions were "very powerful" while eye witnesses said the impact of the blast at the bus stop was such that interiors of two shops right behind it in a three-storied building were badly damaged.