At least six people have been killed and 80 others injured in two suspected bomb blasts in two neighboring states of western India. Two mysterious blasts on Monday night at around 9.30 pm killed four people and injured 70 others near a mosque in Malegaon town of the Maharashtra state, local media reports said. The explosion took place when Ramadan special prayers were being offered in all mosques across the town. The wounded were rushed to the nearby Noor and Faran Hospitals, witnesses said. The situation was tense around Malegaon after the blasts and police had to fire in the air to control the situation, sources said. Curfew was imposed in the eastern part of the town after the blasts and stone-pelting by a mob.
This is the second time that Malegaon has been hit by explosions. Earlier, on September 8, 2006, four bombs had been planted on bicycles and went off in the textile town, killing 31 and injuring 297 others.
In a separate incident, two were killed and ten others injured in an explosion in Modassa town in the neighboring state of Gujarat. Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah told NDTV that there has been no prior intelligence about the blast. Gujarat's commercial capital Ahmedabad had been hit by a string of 16 bombs on July 27 that killed 45 and injured over 160.
Police in Ahmedabad had also announced Monday they had found 17 "crude explosive devices" dumped in rubbish. The incidents come after Indian government recently unveiled new security measures to tackle what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said were "vast gaps" in intelligence gathering on home-grown militancy.
Several other Indian cities -- Jaipur, Bangalore and New Delhi -- have been hit by serial bombings since May, also claimed by the Indian militants.
India has been hit by several waves of bombings in recent years. Targets have ranged from mosques and Hindu temples to trains and courthouses. More than 450 people have died in separate attacks since October 2005, according to an official count.