One of two wounded monks is loaded into a van to be taken to hospital for treatment after yesterday's multiple bomb blasts. Photo: AP
Eight bombs explode at Bodh Gaya temple complex in what could be revenge for violence against Muslims in Myanmar; two monks hurt
Multiple small bomb blasts at one of Buddhism's holiest sites - the Bodh Gaya temple complex in eastern India - wounded two monks yesterday, but the historic temple itself was not damaged, police said.
The Indian government called the blasts a "terror attack" after eight bombs exploded at the complex in Bihar state, which attracts Buddhists and other visitors from all over the world.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but police said they earlier warned officials that Islamic militants could target the site, as revenge for Buddhist violence against Muslims in neighbouring Myanmar.
"Eight low-intensity serial blasts took place early this morning, injuring two people," senior police official S. K. Bharadwaj said. Two more bombs were found and defused inside the complex, one of them near the temple's celebrated, 24-metre-tall statue of the Buddha.
Along with temples, dozens of monasteries, housing monks from around the world, are near the complex, which is believed to contain the tree under which the Buddha reached enlightenment in 531 BC.
Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts at the complex, a Unesco World Heritage Site, and said: "Such attacks on religious places will never be tolerated."
Junior Home Minister R. P. N. Singh said "it is clear that this was a terror attack" and teams of investigators were probing the incident.
New Delhi police had warned state officials last winter that Islamist militants from the Indian Mujahideen group were planning to attack the complex, an official focused on anti-terror operations said.
"We told state police that the Indian Mujahideen planned to carry out an attack as retaliation for Buddhist violence against Muslims in Myanmar," the official said. "We told them that Bodh Gaya is a probable target for attack."
The Indian Mujahideen has admitted carrying out numerous bomb blasts in recent years, and is often listed as a suspect in attacks across the country.
Attacks on Buddhists are rare in India but there have been tensions in the wider region recently following clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Additional security forces have been deployed to guard the complex after the blasts, which wounded two monks, a 50-year-old Tibetan and a 30-year-old Myanmese national, who have been taken to hospital.
Sri Lankan Buddhist monk Gomarankadawala Hemarathana, 28, who raced to the scene after the blasts, said one of the bombs had been placed at the base of the statue. "It is a miracle that the Buddha statue was not harmed. The bomb was placed at the foot of the statue but it did not go off," he said.
The Bodh Gaya complex, 110 kilometres south of the state capital, Patna, is one of the earliest Buddhist temples still standing in India. The first temple was built in the 3rd century BC by the Buddhist emperor Asoka and the present temples date from the 5th or 6th century.
The complex houses the holy bodhi tree as well as the giant Mahabodhi statue of Buddha, and shrines mark places where he is believed to have spent time after his enlightenment.
After his meditations beneath the tree, Buddha is said to have devoted the rest of his life to teaching and he founded an order of monks before dying aged 80.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama makes frequent trips to the complex, which attracts visitors during the peak tourist season from October to March.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as 'Terror' bombing at Buddhist holy site
source : scmp
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