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| Warning Signs Seen Ahead of India Bombings | Warning Signs Seen Ahead of India Bombings |
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| NEW DELHI — The death toll from Thursday’s explosions in Hyderabad, India, rose Friday to 15 people, as new information about India’s deadliest bombing since 2011 suggested the attacks had been long planned, raising questions about whether they could have been prevented. | NEW DELHI — The death toll from Thursday’s explosions in Hyderabad, India, rose Friday to 15 people, as new information about India’s deadliest bombing since 2011 suggested the attacks had been long planned, raising questions about whether they could have been prevented. |
| Two days before the blasts, national intelligence sources warned that there might be terrorist activity in Hyderabad and other Indian cities including Bangalore and Coimbatore, the Home Ministry reported on Friday. | Two days before the blasts, national intelligence sources warned that there might be terrorist activity in Hyderabad and other Indian cities including Bangalore and Coimbatore, the Home Ministry reported on Friday. |
| The blasts went off within about 150 yards of each other near a crowded bus stop in the neighborhood of Dilsukh Nagar, an area packed with shops, restaurants, theaters and a huge produce market. | The blasts went off within about 150 yards of each other near a crowded bus stop in the neighborhood of Dilsukh Nagar, an area packed with shops, restaurants, theaters and a huge produce market. |
| An Oct. 26, 2012, Delhi Police news release about the arrest of four people in connection with explosions in Pune two months earlier mentioned the Dilsukh Nagar neighborhood as a potential target. It said one of the militants arrested in the 2012 blasts, Imran Khan, had done reconnaissance of the Hyderabad neighborhood “on a motorcycle” with an accomplice. | |
| The news release tied the 2012 attack to Riyaz Bhatkal, the alleged leader of an Islamic radical group called the Indian Mujahedeen. Officials said they were investigating whether Thursday’s bombings may be tied to India’s recent execution of an Islamic militant in Kashmir. | |
| Hyderabad itself has a fairly vibrant and somewhat radicalized Muslim community. The city was also the target of twin synchronized bombings in 2007 that took the lives of 42 people at popular gathering spots. In the hours after that blast, the police found and defused 19 more bombs, left at bus stops, theaters, pedestrian bridges and intersections. | |
| Investigators later tied the 2007 attacks to a terror group based in Bangladesh. | |
| While officials had some indications before Thursday’s bombings that an attack was looming, intelligence experts cautioned that it is not always easy to prevent such violence. | |
| "These alerts are so routine that you cannot act upon these," J. N. Rai, a former official with India’s Intelligence Bureau, said in a telephone interview. "With the use of technology and online communication, it has become rather more difficult" to detect and prevent planned attacks, he added. | |
| Four days before the blasts, wires had been cut to security cameras in the area, NDTV reported, citing police officials. They had not been repaired even though the traffic police knew they were not working. | Four days before the blasts, wires had been cut to security cameras in the area, NDTV reported, citing police officials. They had not been repaired even though the traffic police knew they were not working. |
| A senior police inspector told reporters that iron nails were found at both bombing sites. He also said that it was possible that ammonium nitrate was mixed with other explosives to create the bombs. | |
| The attack comes as India has been on heightened alert following the Feb. 9 execution of a Kashmiri militant accused of a deadly 2001 assault on India’s Parliament. The execution, conducted in secret, set off unrest in Kashmir and led the government to impose a curfew in the Kashmir Valley. | |
| S. A. Huda, director general of the local state police. Said investigators were looking into whether bombing was tied to the execution in Kashmir. "That’s one of the possibilities," he said. | |
| He said no arrests have yet been made. "It’s painstaking work" to investigate, he said. "We don’t want to jump the gun." | |
| The latest bombings drew widespread condemnation in India. | |
| “This is a dastardly attack; the guilty will not go unpunished,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said. | |
| Hyderabad, with a population of more than 6 million, is one of India’s most prosperous and fastest-growing cities, home to many software and biotechnology companies. | |
| In the wake of Thursday’s attacks, residents of the city planned demonstrations for Sunday in which they planned to block roads, including the main highway to Bangalore. | In the wake of Thursday’s attacks, residents of the city planned demonstrations for Sunday in which they planned to block roads, including the main highway to Bangalore. |
Heather Timmons reported from New Delhi, and Gerry Mullany reported from Hong Kong. | Heather Timmons reported from New Delhi, and Gerry Mullany reported from Hong Kong. |