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| Saturday, 21 February 2004 |
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20 injured as bomb rips through holy Sikh city AMRITSAR, Friday (AFP) At least 20 people were injured when a bomb blew up Thursday inside a court complex in India's holy Sikh city of Amritsar, hurling rickshaws into the air, flattening shops and wrecking cars, police said. Officials had earlier given an injury figure of 15. The blast occurred near the office of city police chief Kultar Singh, officials said, adding that the explosion was in an area where items such as cars and stolen property seized by police were stored as evidence in ongoing trials in the courts here. "It was a powerful bomb," Singh told AFP as rescuers rushed the injured to hospitals. Singh said most of the wounded had received shrapnel or burn injures in the explosion that shattered window panes in buildings in a 200-metre (660-foot) radius. Forensic experts at the site found unspecified electronic devices and said they were possibly used to trigger the bomb. Some police officials, however, said the cause of the blast could have been accidental. "It could be that during the days of terrorism police may have dumped some bombs here and one of them blew up," one senior official said at the site, an unprotected zone in the court complex. Punjab police Deputy Director-General Parmjit Singh Gill also did not rule out an accident as the cause of the massive explosion, which was heard through the crowded city and sparked panic among residents, many of whom have borne the brunt of an armed insurgency here. Gill, however, said he was unsure if seized RDX explosives would have been left so negligently on open ground. Eyewitnesses said they saw rickshaws fly up to six metres (20 feet) into the air following the explosion, which destroyed or damaged more than 50 shops inside the complex. Around 100 cars parked in the area were also badly damaged. |
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