Deaths Reported In Bombings In India

AHMADABAD, India (AP) - Government official says 15 dead, 100 wounded in series of blasts in western India.
A series of small explosions hit the western Indian city of Ahmadabad on Saturday, a day after seven similar blasts struck another city in the south.

The explosions in Ahmadabad appeared to be caused by small bombs, Indian media reported, and a senior official called the blasts "deplorable."

TV footage showed a bus severely damaged by an explosion with ambulance rushing to the scene.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either Friday's or Saturday's bombings, and it was not clear if they were connected.

Prithviraj Chavan, a junior minister in the prime minister's office, said the explosions were set off by people "bent upon creating a communal divide in the country" - language officials usually use when blaming Islamic militants believed to have been behind bombings that have repeatedly hit the India's cities in recent years.

Chavan provided few details about the explosions, but the private CNN-IBN television news station reported at least eight explosions in several neighborhoods of Ahmadabad, the capital of Gujarat state in western India.

As in past bombings in India, suspicion for both sets of explosions quickly fell on Muslim militants blamed for attacks such as the July 2006 bombings that ripped through Mumbai's commuter rail network, killing nearly 200 people.

Those fears were amplified by the history of Ahmadabad, a crowded and historic city that in 2002 was the scene of one of worst incidents of rioting between India's Hindu majority and its Muslim minority.

The violence killed about thousand people, most of them Muslims.

It was triggered by a fire that killed 60 passengers on a train packed with Hindu pilgrims.

Hindu extremists blamed the deaths on Muslims and rampaged through Muslim neighborhoods, although the cause of the blaze remains unclear.