Terror strikes Bodh Gaya
9 July 2013 5:21 AM IST
Two monks were injured on Sunday when nine bombs went off in quick succession at the revered Mahabodhi temple complex in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya town where the Buddha attained enlightenment. The blasts took place between 5.30 a.m. and 6 a.m. at the 1,500-year-old temple, annually visited by millions of pilgrims from all over the world. The deafening explosions triggered panic, but caused no major damage.
The blasts made the hotels, where a number of tourists were staying, shake, said a local who resides near the Mahabodhi temple.
The temple complex, which is a Unesco Heritage site, has direct association with the Buddha (566-486 BC) as it was the place where he attained enlightenment in 531 BC while seated under the Bodhi tree. Bodh Gaya is about 110 km from Patna. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said ‘such attacks on religious places will never be tolerated’, while President Pranab Mukherjee termed the serial blasts a ‘senseless act of violence’.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said four of nine bombs went off in the temple complex, three in a monastery nearby, one near the statue of the Buddha, and another near a tourist bus.
Bihar Police chief Abhayanand said the blasts were not of ‘very high intensity’ and therefore no damage was caused to the sanctum sanctorum. Additional Director General of Police SK Bhardwaj said that two Buddhist monks were injured – one a Tibetan and the other a Myanmarese national have been identified as Tenzing Dorjee, 50, and Vilas Ga, 30 respectively.
The terror strike triggered a political row between the BJP and the JD-U, which snapped their 17-year-old alliance barely a fortnight back.
‘The state government had been told about recces that had been conducted by terror elements of the place, especially in context of the violence in Myanmar,’ said BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.
‘There were warnings, but no preventive action was taken...Why?’ he asked.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar was, however, quick to refute allegations about his government having ignored intelligence inputs. ‘There are CCTV cameras at the Mahabodhi temple... We have had a close look at the security of the temple earlier too... But the way these people entered and even became successful to plant bombs, we have to analyse in what dress they entered the temple and even examine the security at the gates,’ the chief minister told reporters after visiting Bodh Gaya.
Hours after the blasts, the Centre also directed all states to ensure fool-proof security at Buddhist shrines and Tibetan settlements in the wake of the continuing violence between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar.
In an advisory to all states with special emphasis on cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, the Home Ministry said adequate security must be provided to Buddhist shrines, Buddhist places of worships and Tibetian settlements. The National Investigation Agency officials have reached Gaya to probe the blasts.
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