Mahesh Kumar A/Associated Press
A member of the bomb squad with a sniffer dog arrived at a blast site in Hyderabad on Thursday.
NEW DELHI — Two bombs planted on bicycles killed at least 11 people and wounded 50 in a busy shopping district in the southern India city of Hyderabad at the height of rush hour Thursday night in what officials said may have been a coordinated attack.
Sushil Kumar Shinde, India’s home affairs minister, told journalists in New Delhi that the bicycles had been 150 meters away from each other at the time of the explosions in the Dilsukh Nagar neighborhood, which happened about 10 minutes apart, killing eight at one site and three at the other. The neighborhood is packed with shops, restaurants, theaters and a huge produce market.
Mr. Shinde said the central government had warned state governments that such an attack was planned. “We have had some information for the last two days of such an incident,” he said.
“At this stage it is difficult to say more,” he said. He warned that the death toll may go up.
“This is a dastardly attack, the guilty will not go unpunished,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a Twitter message.
Hyderabad, one of India’s largest cities and capital of Andhra Pradesh state, is a leading center of the country’s burgeoning pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
The blast sites, one near a theater, were soon mobbed by protesters, politicians, reporters and the curious. Television news footage in the hours afterward showed chaotic scenes with some investigators trying to find the remains of explosive devices while huge numbers of people jostled for space around them.
The presence of government officials, who come with enormous entourages and their own police squads, was portrayed by NDTV-News as particularly unhelpful.
“We’ve seen political leaders come into the area and hold press conferences,” the anchor on NDTV said. “That’s the last thing they should be doing.”
Kiran Kumar Reddy, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, held a news conference away from the scene late Thursday night and asked people to stay away from the blast areas. Renuka Chowdhury, a leader of the Indian National Congress Party, pleaded with other politicians to stay away as well.
“I really wish politicians would recognize this,” Ms. Chowdhury said.
The money and resources spent on protecting bureaucrats and politicians has become a source of increasing controversy in India, especially in the wake of a highly publicized gang-rape case in December in New Delhi. But Indian politicians, like those elsewhere, often compete with each other to show who is tougher on acts of terrorism and other crimes.
Hyderabad has been the site of frequent bombings in recent years, particularly those using home-made explosives.
In May 2007, 13 people died after a bomb went off at the Mecca Masjid, including some who were killed in clashes between the police and Muslim protesters afterward. In August 2007, a pair of synchronized explosions tore through two popular gathering spots in Hyderabad, killing at least 42 and wounding dozens. Police found and defused 19 more bombs in the hours after the blasts, left at bus stops, theaters, pedestrian bridges and intersections.
In the immediate aftermath of such attacks, a common worry is that one religious community will blame another and attack them. Such sectarian-inspired riots have long plagued India.
Asked in a news conference if he believed that Muslim extremists were to blame for the bicycle blasts, Mr. Shinde said:
“We have to investigate. We should not come to conclusion immediately.”
The country’s prime minister sought to allay anger over the blasts.
“I appeal to the public to remain calm and maintain peace,” he said.
Asaduddin Owaisi, a Muslim member of Parliament from Hyderabad, called the blasts “a cowardly dastardly act.”
“I feel that the priority is to maintain peace,” he said. “Let us not fall pray to rumors.”
Deadly Bombings Hit Southern India City
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