Indian police say suspect blamed terror group for opposition rally blasts

A man in custody blamed an outlawed Islamic group for ordering a series of deadly bomb blasts near an Indian opposition rally by a Hindu nationalist leader, police said on Monday – a grim prelude to national elections next spring.

The six crude bombs killed six people and injured 83 when they exploded on Sunday just before Narendra Modi’s campaign rally, where hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in the centre of Bihar’s capital of Patna.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which caused confusion until the rally went ahead as scheduled with a speech by Modi. BJP officials said they kept news of the blasts quiet until after the rally to avoid panicking the crowd.

Modi is waging an aggressive campaign to become India’s next prime minister, backed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, and critics worry his rise could exacerbate sectarian tensions between India’s majority Hindus and its 138 million Muslims.

After the blasts, police detained three men in eastern Bihar state and two more in neighbouring Jharkhand, where officers raided a home and discovered a “huge amount of explosives,” senior Patna police official Manu Maharaj said.

“The main motive for the bombings was to create panic and cause a stampede,” Maharaj said.

Maharaj said one of the suspects confessed to being involved in the bombings, which the suspect said were ordered by the Indian Mujahideen, which has been linked to the banned Pakistan-based Islamist rebel group Lashkar-e-Taiba.