AMRITSAR, India (AFP) At least six people were killed and dozens injured Sunday in a suspected bomb attack in a packed cinema hall in northern India, police and witnesses said.
There were scenes of panic after the explosion, which happened as hundreds of people were crammed into a theatre to watch the late-night screening of a newly-released Bollywood comedy. The apparent attack took place in the industrial city of Ludhiana in northern Punjab state. Police officials in Amritsar, the main city in Punjab, put the toll at six dead and up to 30 more injured, many of them seriously. "We were watching the film when I suddenly heard a huge blast and I rushed outside. I saw some four or five bodies inside," an unidentified eyewitness also told the Hindi-language Aaj Tak news channel. Indian television news footage showed at least one body lying on the floor of the cinema, which was strewn with shards of broken glass and blood stains. Shoes and pieces of torn clothing also littered the blast site. The reports said the likely cause was a bomb attack, although the Home Ministry in New Delhi said it was still "too early" to say if it was yet another terror strike. "We are waiting for the state government and the police to give us a report. The situation is being monitored," a Home Ministry official told AFP. The Punjab blast comes days after two people were killed and nearly a dozen injured Thursday in a bomb attack near one of India's most revered Islamic shrines in the northern state of Rajasthan. India sounded a nationwide alert after that attack, which came ahead of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, on Sunday, and the Hindu festival of Dussehra on October 21. Some Indian officials had pointed the finger at hardline Muslim militants allegedly backed by neighbouring Pakistan for the Rajasthan blast. There have been other unsolved attacks in India in recent months. In August, 42 people were killed in twin blasts in the southern technology hub of Hyderabad, while in May 11 people died when a bomb tore through the city's Mecca Mosque. In February, 68 people were killed when bombs hit the "Friendship Express" linking India and Pakistan. The latest blasts come ahead of a scheduled October 22 meeting in New Delhi of senior Indian and Pakistani officials on efforts to combat cross-border militancy. India accuses Pakistan of not doing enough to prevent Islamic extremists from using its soil as a springboard to launch attacks, especially in Kashmir where a separatist revolt has claimed more than 44,000 lives since 1989. Pakistan, which launched peace talks with India in 2004, denies the charge. Punjab, the scene of the cinema blast and India's only Sikh-majority state with a population of about 25 million, also saw a religion-fuelled separatist revolt in the 1980's which claimed thousands of lives. The revolt was fanned after prime minister Indira Gandhi ordered troops into the Golden Temple at Amritsar to evict a Sikh militant sect in 1984. Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards shot her dead later the same year. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iGTzBCZgLZr0mKBiWhiNWLoms2Lg [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Note: Replying to this email will send an e-mail to Jharkhand Online Forum. Jharkhand Online Forum is totally un-moderated means here you have got 100 percent freedom to express your thoughts, views and opinions. Follow this link to know about other Members as well as to enter your details in Jharkhand Members' Database: http://egroups.com/group/Jharkhand/database?method=reportRows&tbl=2&sortBy While posting your message to 'Jharkhand Online Forum' please always Remember, you are taking up someone's time, so please avoid one line messages in forum like - Thank you for your reply or I am good or Greetings or I agree etc. For one line greetings or appreciation message - you may use the Jharkhand Instant Messenger at Jharkhand (India) Website: http://www.jharkhand.org.in Please, don't pass on chain-letter-type messages, advertisements, materials from another website without mentioning it's original source, links of commercial websites of any kind, virus alerts, petitions, job adverts, give-away and dire warnings etc. Also, please avoid followings in your personal e-mail signature - Blog or Website or Resume or Personal Profile links of any kind i.e. supported by commercial advert and web links of company or organization or business that you represent. Posting Norms - http://groups.google.com/group/Jharkhand/web/posting-norms Jai Jharkhand -> http://www.jharkhand.org.in/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/Jharkhand/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/Jharkhand/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://in.docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
