NEW DELHI, Nov 23: At least 14 people were killed and 60 injured in five blasts on Friday that appeared to target bustling law courts in the cities of Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh state, officials and witnesses said.

All three court premises had previously seen incidents of manhandling of suspected Muslim extremists by lawyers.

Reports said that last week lawyers had roughed up three suspected Jaishe Muhammad (JeM) militants and the bar association had also refused to take up their cases.

The Faizabad court premises were witness to an altercation between activists of a Babri Masjid organisation and lawyers.

The local bar association had banned its advocates from taking up their case. The court premises in Varanasi were witness last year to beating of Waliullah Khan, the main accused in a temple explosion there.

Junior Home Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal described the low intensity explosions as a pre-planned conspiracy but added it was too early to name the organisation behind the incidents. “There were simultaneous blasts in three cities. This makes it clear that there is a deep conspiracy behind it. I can’t say which organisation is behind the incident. But the motive could be to disturb communal harmony and to create fear and terror among the people.”