At least 20 people have been killed and 150 injured after at least two blasts near a mosque in the west Indian town of Malegaon, officials said. The first explosion happened as hundreds of Muslims left the Nurani mosque in the rural town after prayers on the Islamic festival day of Shab-e-Barat, police and reports said. "My people are telling me that there are around 20-plus bodies lying inside the (hospital) campus," following the explosions, said L.N. Chauhan, chief medical officer of the privately run Wadia hospital. "Around 150 patients had been brought to our hospital and we treated some of them and sent the rest to (the city's two) other hospitals," he said by telephone from Malegaon. Police said one blast was heard near a graveyard on a day when Muslims traditionally remember their ancestors and offer prayers at their graves. It is a key date ahead of the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Muslims believe that all sins will be forgiven by praying to Allah throughout Shab-e-Barat, the Night of Blessing.
A curfew was declared as state politicians from western Maharashtra and police teams headed to the area, some 180 kilometres north of the economic centre of Mumbai. Police, who said they did not know the cause of the blasts, were on high alert across the state of western Maharashtra, and mobile telephone networks in the town were down. "I am confirming some blasts," police chief P.K. Jain told NDTV news channel." I do not know what has caused the blasts." Details of casualties taken to the other two hospitals in the town were not immediately available.