Indian mujahideen blamed for Hindu rally bomb blasts that killed seven

Authorities are investigating an outlawed Islamic group blamed for ordering deadly bomb blasts near an Indian opposition rally by a Hindu nationalist leader, police said yesterday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the six small blasts, which killed seven people and wounded 83 just before the rally by Hindu nationalist opposition leader Narendra Modi.

One of two suspects arrested told police that an outlawed Islamic group had instructed him and others to carry out the bombings on Sunday as hundreds of thousands of people gathered for the rally in a park in Bihar's state capital of Patna.

"The main motive was to create panic and cause a stampede," said senior Patna police official Manu Maharaj. Officials from Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, 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, and critics worry his rise could exacerbate sectarian tensions between India's majority Hindus and its 138 million Muslims.

Police detained three men in eastern Bihar state and three more in neighbouring Jharkhand, where officers raided a home and seized "a huge amount of explosives" along with bomb-making materials, Maharaj said.

Police charged two of the suspects with criminal conspiracy and mass murder. The other four were released after questioning.