Blast kills 31 and injures 125

Two bombs rigged to bicycles exploded yesterday in the town of Malegaon in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, killing 31 people and injuring 125 more, most of them Muslim worshipers leaving a mosque after prayers.
Authorities imposed a curfew on parts of Malegaon in an effort to head off any outbreak of sectarian violence such as has hit the town previously.

There was no claim of responsibility for the explosions, which came two months after synchronized bombings killed 200 people along a commuter-rail network in Bombay, about 150 miles southwest of Malegaon. That attack was blamed on Lakshar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant group based in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

But Muslims were the apparent targets Friday afternoon as they prepared to mark the festival of Shabe Barat, or Night of Fortune, a holiday when they pray for the dead. Of the two, possibly three, blasts that struck Malegaon, one went off near a mosque packed with worshippers and another in a busy market.
Anil Kumbre, a high-ranking police official in Malegaon, said late Friday that the confirmed death toll stood at 29 but that it could rise.

Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the incident seemed designed to "divide the various sections of the public." Army troops in the nearby town of Nashik were put on standby, a military official said, while major cities across the country went on heightened alert, stepping up security in public places.