Explosion at Mahabodhi Temple: 5 injiured

Gaya, July 7 – Nine serial explosions rocked the Mahabodhi Temple complex in Bodh Gaya on Sunday morning, leaving at least five people injured.

 

Union home secretary Anil Goswami confirmed that the Bodh Gaya blasts were a terror attack. According to Gaya Police, the blasts took place in quick succession between 5.30 am and 6 am in the temple complex and near the Mahabodhi tree.

 

While four blasts took place inside the Mahabodhi Temple complex, three occurred in Karmapa monastery, one each near  the 80-ft Buddha statue and at the bus stand near bypass, DIG Magadh range Nayyer Hussnain Khan said.

 

Arvind Singh, a member of Mahabodhi Temple Management Commitee said two other bombs, one near the 80 feet statue and one at bus stand have been defused.

 

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and DGP Abhyanand have left for Bodh Gaya by road. The two injured tourists, including a national of Myanmar and another of Tibet, are being treated at hospital, police said.

 

Additional director general of police (Law and Order) SK Bhardwaj said prima facie it seems the serial blasts have been done by some terrorist organisation. The ADG said that there was a general alert about possibility of terrorist attacks in Bihar and the state police had tightened security.

 

"At Bodh Gaya temple, the police security arrangements are only outside the temple while the security inside is looked after by temple trust officials," he said. "A team of NIA officers is coming to Bodh Gaya from Kolkata," DIG special branch Parasnath said.

 

The DIG said, "The sanctum sanctorum of the Mahabodhi Temple is intact. The temple premises have been sanitised." The secretary of the Bodh Gaya committee Dorji said, "There were four blasts inside the temple premises. Fortunately, there was no damage to the Bodhi Tree or the main temple structure."

 

"In the first blast which took place near the Bodhi tree, a table was blown up because of which two persons were injured. The second blast, I think, was inside the enclosure where books were kept. The furniture was damaged but there was no damage to the monuments or statues," he said.

 

Asked about the nature of explosives used, S K Bharadwaj, ADG (Law and Order) said they were low intensity time bombs. He said, "We got information about six-seven months back that there may be a terror attack on the Mahabodhi temple. After that we had beefed up secuirty and deployed extra forces".

 

Bodh Gaya Buddhist temple, around 10 km from Gaya and 100 km from capital Patna, is world famous. Lord Buddha had attained enlightenment here under the Mahabodhi tree in the temple premises. Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama makes frequent trips to Bodh Gaya and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had visited it six months back. A total of 52 countries have established their monasteries here.

 

TOI