Men riding a motorcycle threw two bombs into a mosque in western India today, wounding 21 people and triggering sporadic violence as angry crowds set fire to shops and vehicles, police said.
The blast took place in Parbhani town, nearly 500 kilometres east of India's financial hub Bombay, and came during prayers on the last Friday before the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
The attack sparked tension in the town of some 500,000 people as groups of Muslim youth threw stones and set on fire some shops and vehicles, police said. Sectarian violence between majority Hindus and minority Muslims sporadically erupts in India.
Officials said they did not know who had thrown the bombs in today's attack.
"The situation is tense and mobs are setting fire to shops and vehicles and throwing stones in the main market area," Parbhani police officer Mr S.S. Khandare said.
He said an indefinite curfew had been imposed to curb the violence. Police had earlier said seven people were injured in the bomb attack.
Mr Chhagan Bhujbal, Deputy Chief Minister of the state of Maharashtra, where Parbhani is located, said two of the injured were in critical condition.
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The bomb attack came nearly three months after Bombay suffered twin car bombings that killed 52 people and wounded over 150.
