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Central & South Asia
Blast hits Indian shrine
Explosion outside the tomb of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti kills three people.
Last Modified: 11 Oct 2007 16:11 GMT
Chishti's tomb, like many Sufi monuments in India, attracts people of all faiths [ AFP]
Three people have been killed and 18 others injured in a blast at one of India's most revered shrines in the northern state of Rajasthan.
 
The blast outside the tomb of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, a 12th century Muslim Sufi saint, occurred on Thursday evening in the city of Ajmer.
The shrine, or dargah, is an important pilgrimage site and was packed with hundreds of worshippers ahead of Eid-al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
 
"A big crowd had gathered outside the main shrine to break their fast," Lalit Maheswari, a police chief for Ajmer said.
Explosion
 
Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan's home minister, said: "It was a low intensity explosion. Preliminary information suggests a lunch box appeared to be packed with something which exploded."
 
Sayeed Tariq, an eyewitness, told reporters the blast triggered mayhem in the narrow ally that leads to the shrine.
 
"There was a stampede as people shouted 'bomb, bomb' and ran from the shrine," he said.
 
Police sealed the area after the blast, and explosives experts were sent to the area.
 
Markets in the town quickly closed after the blasts.

Chishti, the saint, is known as the benefactor of the poor, and his shrine, like many sufi monuments in India, attracts people of all faiths, who go there to make a wish.
 
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion, but The Press Trust of India quoted unnamed federal government officials as labelling the Ajmer blast a "terror strike" staged by anti-Indian fighters.
Source:
Agencies
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