May 30, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 17,1423

AHMEDABAD, May 29: Three bombs exploded on in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, wounding 11 people and stoking fears of fresh communal violence.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the crude devices that went off just after the morning rush hour in public buses, creating widespread panic.

“People were running helter-skelter,” Dayabhai Barwad, a teashop owner, said.

Police found an unexploded bomb in a parked bus and two bomb disposal experts were hurt when they dismantled another device in a house during a security sweep.

A senior police official said the bus blasts did not appear to be “a terrorist attack”. Another police official said the bombs appeared to be “crudely made and intended to create panic”.

“Police are on high alert as this (explosion) is bound to create more trouble,” a senior police official said.

Ahmedabad has borne the brunt of India’s worst communal killings in a decade that erupted in February.

Officials say almost 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, have been killed in the three months of bloodshed, but human rights groups say the death toll is at least 2,500.

The blasts created anxiety among residents of Ahmedabad, where a night curfew is still in place in several areas and public buses were nearly empty.—Reuters