Date:22/11/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/11/22/stories/2002112205880100.htm

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1 killed, 20 hurt in A.P. blast

HYDERABAD NOV. 21. In a strike by suspected ISI agents, a time-bomb was set off at a parking lot near a Saibaba temple packed with devotees on the city outskirts at 8.30 p.m. tonight killing a woman and injuring 20, police said.

The bomb was planted in a milk can on a scooter parked near the boundary wall of the temple at Saroornagar. The Ranga Reddy District Superintendent of Police, M.V. Ramachandra Raju, told reporters that potassium chloride was used to set off the blast.

PW hand ruled out

The Additional Superintendent of Police, Ramachandra Rao, ruled out the involvement of the naxalite outfit, People's War, in the blast and said the manner in which the explosion was triggered pointed the needle of suspicion to Pakistan's ISI.

The temple was packed with devotees as special pujas are held on Thursdays on the lines of the Shirdi shrine. Five devotees were seriously injured and among them was an 11-year-old boy who suffered 85 per cent burn injuries, Mr. Raju said.

Some of the devotees fainted under the impact of the sound of the blast, which triggered panic in and around the temple.

The A.P. Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, and the Home Minister, T. Devender Goud, visited the blast site and the hospital where the injured were admitted.

— PTI