Three killed in blast at Ajmer Sharif

NEW DELHI—The death toll from a blast at one of India’s most revered Muslim shrines in the northern state of Rajasthan rose to three Thursday as a worshipper succumbed to his injuries, police said. Eighteen others have been hospitalised with injuries after the blast outside the Dargah Sharif, or holy Dargah, in the state’s pilgrimage town of Ajmer, Police Inspector-General Nand Kishore said
“Six of them are in critical condition,” he said, adding three of the 18 victims rushed to hospitals were children who were accompanying their parents to the ancient shrine. Kishore said the complex was packed with 500 worshippers when the blast happened, with two Muslim men had died instantly in the blast.
The blast occurred at around 6.15 p.m. just outside the shrine, or dargah, in Ajmer just before the end of the Ramadan fasting month. Around 200 people were in and around the shrine at the time, many breaking their fast after prayers, police said. The bomb had been placed under a tree. “A big crowd had gathered outside the main shrine to break their fast,” Lalit Maheswari, additional police chief for Ajmer told Reuters. “The bomb was placed in a bag.”
“We have recovered some mobile instruments, so we think some sophisticated device was used, but an investigation is going on.” Television pictures showed a man being stretchered from the site with his clothes apparently torn from his body and what appeared to be a corpse with his eyes open.—Agencies