At least 11 people were killed and 50 injured in two near simultaneous blasts in Hyderabad and the death toll could go up, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Thursday night.
Asked whether it was a terror attack, the minister said, "It is too early to say anything and only an investigation will reveal further information".
He said the two bombs were placed within a radius of 100 to 150 metres in Dilkhus nagar area in Hyderabad and placed on two bicycles.
"There were two blasts in Dilkhush nagar. I have spoken to the chief minister (Kiran Kumar Reddy) and he told me that the bombs were placed on two cycles. In one place, eight people were killed and in another place, three people were killed. Fifty people were also injured," he told reporters.
Asked
whether the toll could go up, the home minister said, "It is possible that the death toll will rise".
Asked whether the blasts had any links with the arrest of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, who is currently in jail for allegedly delivering an inflammatory speech, he said, "There is nothing like that".
Shinde said the Andhra Pradesh chief minister was at the spot and he told him that there was a similar blast at nearby Gokul Chat five years ago.
The home minister said security agencies had information for the last two days about a possible attack by terrorists, which had been shared with all the states.
He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been informed and teams of the National Investigation Agency and the National Security Guard’s bomb disposal squad had been rushed to the spot.
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