AJMER: At least two pilgrims were killed and 17 others, including a child, wounded in a bomb blast at the sufi shrine of Khawaja Moinuddhin Chishti where thousands of devotees gathered to break the day-long Ramzan fast on Thursday. Two persons, including 45-year-old Mohd Sohaib from Mumbai, died on the spot and several others were wounded in the blast near Aasthan-e-Noor opposite Begum Ki Dhalan when people had gathered there for iftaar , Deepak Upreti, Divisional Commissioner of Ajmer, said. A near-stampede broke out soon after the bomb kept in a school bag exploded at 1816 hours as people, who were having food after the fast, ran helter and skelter, many of them profusely bleeding, and overturned plates and eatables lay scattered.
Union Home Ministry sources in Delhi said it was a terror strike in which militants had used a low-intensity improvised explosive device. They said the terror outfits, including Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, were against sufi Islam and they could be prime suspects behind the blast which came barely ten days ahead of the meeting of Indo-Pakistan anti-terror mechanism here on October 22.
CRPF battalions based in Ajmer had been kept in readiness for deployment at the shrine. Of the 17 injured, who were taken to local Jawaharlal Nehru hospital, the condition of one was critical, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Kanihya Lal said in Jaipur.