Twin Bombings Kill 41 in India; Sikhs Blamed

Sikh separatists killed 41 people in deftly timed twin bombings at a Hindu festival and then at a nearby hospital where doctors were treating survivors, police said Thursday.

More than 140 people were wounded.

The first bomb went off Wednesday night in a crowd of thousands gathered for the Hindu Ramlila pageant, which celebrates the triumph of good over evil, in this rice farming town 155 miles east of Punjab, the Sikh-dominated state that has borne the brunt of the insurgency’s violence.

Thirty people were killed at the pageant site, and 11 died in the hospital blast, said Uttar Pradesh state police spokesman M. P. Mishra. He said most of the victims belonged to India’s Hindu majority.

There was no claim of responsibility, but Mishra blamed the attack on Sikh militants fighting for a separate nation for members of their faith.

Police said the first bomb was buried in the earth, beneath 3,000 to 5,000 people attending the pageant.

Down the road at Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital, the first victims had just arrived when the second bomb exploded outside the emergency ward.

Although Punjab has been the scene of the worst of the Sikh insurrection, the bloody campaign often spills over to surrounding states and the national capital, New Delhi.

Sikh militants say that Hindus, who account for 82% of India’s 844 million people, discriminate against them politically and economically. Sikhs make up only 2% of the national population, but they outnumber Hindus slightly in Punjab.