6 killed, 45 wounded in bomb attacks in western India

MALEGAON, India — Two bombs exploded in separate towns in western India in crowded markets packed with Muslim shoppers, killing six people and wounding 45 others, police said Tuesday.

An 8-year-old girl was among five people killed and 30 injured late Monday in an explosion in a popular market in Malegaon town, nearly 180 miles northeast of Mumbai, India's financial hub, police said.

Separately on Monday, a small bomb exploded at a market in Modasa town in Gujarat state packed with Muslims breaking their Ramadan fast killing one person and wounding 15, police said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

In Malegaon, police initially said the blast was caused by a gas cylinder, but on Tuesday police officer S. Rajvanshi said it was a bomb placed on a motorcycle outside a restaurant.

He said police were later forced to fire in the air to disperse an angry crowd that surrounded a police station demanding answers from officers.

"Police fired in the air after 22 policemen were injured in stone pelting by the mob," Rajvanshi said.

Two years ago, 31 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in a deadly attack on a mosque in Malegaon.

Nearly 75 percent of Malegaon's 500,000 residents are Muslims. Malegaon has long been the scene of violence between Hindus and Muslims.

In July, the Indian Mujahideen group claimed responsibility for a series of blasts that killed at least 45 people in Gujarat.

Monday's attack came hours after police in Lucknow arrested an alleged member of the Indian Mujahideen in connection with some of the recent bombings, police spokesman Suren Shrivastava said.

Besides the Gujarat attacks, the group also claimed responsibility for Sept. 13 explosions in New Delhi that killed 21 people and wounded 100, bombings in the western city of Jaipur in May that killed 61 people, and a series of explosions in the northern Indian cities of Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad last November that killed 16 people.