The government had received intelligence warning of blasts taking place in the country, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Thursday in the wake of the twin blasts in Hyderabad.
“We were receiving information for the last two days that such a blast may take place … we cannot speculate about the perpetrators at this point of time,” Shinde told reporters here.
Minister of state for home RPN Singh also said that the government had got intelligence about the blast.
Shinde put the toll at eight — five in the first blast and three in the second. He said both the blasts took place within 100 to 150 metres of each other in the crowded Dilsukhnagar, a busy commercial area in the southern part of city, about 15 km from the heart of the city.
Blasts dastardly attack: PM
Strongly condemning the twin blasts in Hyderabad, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday described it as a “dastardly attack” and said the guilty should not “go unpunished”.
“This is a dastardly attack, the guilty will not go unpunished,” a tweet from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) quoted Manmohan Singh as saying of the two blasts that killed at least 11 people and injured 50.
The PMO also said the Prime Minister “strongly condemned” the bomb blasts.
While expressing shock and grief over the loss of lives in the blasts, Manmohan Singh appealed to the public to remain calm and maintain peace, a statement issued here said.
“PM also directed the central agencies to extend all possible help to Andhra Pradesh state authorities in relief operations,” the statement added.
Manmohan Singh also sanctioned ex-gratia of Rs 200,000 from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for each of the next of kin of the dead and Rs.50,000 each to the seriously injured, the statement said.
Union home minister Suhilkumar Shinde said that eight people had died in the first blast, while three people were killed in the second blast.
Union home secretary RK Singh said that an elite team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the National Security Guard will leave to probe the blasts. He also said that as the NIA’s hub is in Hyderabad, its officials have already recahed the blast site.
According to eyewitnesses, 18 people died in the blasts that occurred in a crowded market place in the evening.