 "Hyderabad blasts: toll goes up to 17")
Death toll in the twin blasts incident that shook Hyderabad late last evening has gone up to 17 on Friday morning after six more persons reportedly succumbed to their injuries in various hospitals.
A total of 119 people were injured in the blasts on Thursday that rocked the crowded shopping area in Dilsukhnagar.
Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who visited the blast sites and hospitals to speak to the victims, along with the Union Home Secretary R K Singh, said investigation into the incident was on. Shinde is expected to make a statement on Hyderabad bomb blasts in the Parliament later today.
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The Centre has announced Rs 2 lakh ex gratia to the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each to injured persons.
It is now clear that the choice of location and timing of the blasts was to cause a maximum bloodshed and also aimed at the devotees of a nearby temple. However,the police also believe that the culprits did change the place of the bicycle mounted bomb from their original choice of Shirdi Sai temple to an adjacent corner with the increased police movement in the light of the City Police Commissioner's visit to the temple.
Sai devotees consider Thursday as the auspicious day to perform prayers at the temple and regularly carry out procession from the temple at around 7 pm the timing of the bomb blasts.
While this temple was a target of a similar blast in 2007 where 2 persons died and several injured in that incident, one of the locations of the blasts also was believed to be the same place where an unexploded bomb was defused by the police during the previous incident.
Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu after visiting the blast site said the state had failed to respond to the alerts sent by the Central intelligence agencies thus allowing the human tragedy to happen.
Powerful impact from a seemingly small sized improvised explosive devices had police and the media speculate on the nature of explosive material used by the terrorists. However, Director General of Police(DGP) V Dinesh Reddy yesterday said the preliminary evidence suggest the usage of nitro compounds in the making of the bombs.