Bodh Gaya serial blasts: One person detained

One person was detained on Monday by the NIA in connection with the serial blasts at the Mahabodhi temple in which two monks were injured.

DIG, Magadh range, Nayyer Hasnain Khan said an identity card was found within the temple premises on Sunday on the basis of which the person was detained.

The NIA was interrogating him, the DIG said.

“One suspect hailing from Barachatti block in Gaya has been detained and we are questioning him. We have been analysing the footage and based on that some more people would be questioned soon,” a senior police official said.

“All the CCTV cameras in the Mahabodhi temple premises were fully functional. As you must have seen in the CCTV footage, both state security personnel and temple’s own security personnel were present. I don’t think there was any lapse on security front,” the official said.

A five-member NIA team comprising a DIG and two SPs reached here on Sunday by a special plane from New Delhi and went straight to the Mahabodhi temple to start investigations.

Security has been stepped up at the temple and adjoining areas.

Terror struck one of the holiest Buddhist shrines and other places in Bihar’s pilgrimage town of Bodh Gaya on Sunday with suspected Indian Mujahideen operatives simultaneously triggering nine low intensity bombs.

While four blasts took place inside the Mahabodhi Temple complex, three occurred in Karmapa monastery, one each near near the famous 80-ft Buddha statue and at the bus stand near bypass.

The temple’s sanctum sanctorum and the Bodhi Tree, under which Lord Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment, did not suffer any damage in the blasts.

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