Serial blasts rock one of Buddhism’s holiest sites in India
Patna : The Bodh Gaya temple complex in Bihar was rocked by a series of explosions on Sunday morning. Over a hundred worshippers had just finished 30 minutes of chanting and a few were entering the temple complex — a UNESCO World Heritage site associated with the Buddha’s enlightenment — when the first blast occurred at 5:45 a.m.
Nine explosions followed in the next hour — four at temple sites and five in a 500-meter radius.
The Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata Police is looking into whether a man held here late on Saturday evening and suspected to have links with the banned terrorist outfit, the Indian Mujahideen, is involved in the Bodh Gaya serial blasts.
A 3-kg cylinder with Trinitrotoluene (TNT) and ammonium nitrate was later recovered from under the sacred tree — a peepal tree where the Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment in 6th century BC. The tree was not damaged though. The seven-story shikhar, a pyramidal structure that forms the main sanctum, as well as the other shrines at the site were intact.
AFP adds – Multiple small bomb blasts at one of Buddhism’s holiest sites — the Bodh Gaya temple complex in eastern India — wounded two monks on Sunday but the historic temple was undamaged, police said.
The Indian government called the blasts a “terror attack” after nine bombs exploded at the complex in Bihar state which attracts Buddhists and other visitors from all over the world. – Agencies
Two more bombs were found and defused at the complex, one of them near the temple’s celebrated 80-feet-tall (24-metre) statue of the Buddha.Along with temples, dozens of monasteries housing monks from around the world are located near the complex, which is believed to contain the tree under which the Buddha reached enlightenment in 531 BC.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts at the complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and said that “such attacks on religious places will never be tolerated”.
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.
The Bodh Gaya complex, 110 kilometres (68 miles) 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 centuries, according to UNESCO.
The complex houses the holy bodhi tree as well as the giant Mahabodhi statue of Buddha, and multiple shrines marking the places where he is believed to have spent time after his enlightenment.
