Hyderabad, Aug. 28: Textile merchant Ghanshyam Das was to join two Muslim friends at Gokul Chat Bhandar last Saturday.

He didn’t get the chance — hidden bombs slammed into them before the 32-year-old could reach the popular eatery.

In another part of the city, Mohammed Akbaruddin Miya couldn’t fathom why his neighbour’s “sweet little girl” who used to tie rakhis on his children every year had to die.

Today, the festival was banned in some Hindu- and Muslim-dominated localities as a mark of respect for the victims.

It seemed as if the weekend blasts, which ripped apart 40-odd innocent lives, had done something else, too — narrowed the rift between faiths.

For the first time in Hyderabad, usually polarised along hardline Hindu or Muslim views, religion seemed no longer a divide.

One reason for that is the number of deaths among Muslims. Among the 57 killed in the recent blasts and those at Mecca Masjid earlier this year, 34 are from the community.

“At least now my Hindu brethren should understand that terrorism does not differentiate between its victims,” said prominent high court advocate Abdul Wahab.

Cleric Moulana Nakshabandi echoed him. “This shows terrorists don’t spare Muslims,” he said.

Many Hindus have begun realising that tarring the entire community as supporters of jihad is wrong.

“Maybe some disgruntled youths among Muslims were misled in the name of jihad, but can we blame the entire community around us for that?” said Das.

Many feel the blasts have given both the communities a chance to co-exist peacefully.

“Who says we see our neighbours as our enemy? Our enemy is our religious labels,” said Maulana Iftekhar Saheb.

Three days after the twin explosions, police questioned 50 people, including Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals staying illegally in the city.

“There are over 10,000 Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in Hyderabad overstaying their visas,” said police chief M.A. Basith.

The special task force probing the blasts has begun tracking the movements of known suspects and migrant families. “We have to re-launch the module tracking system once again to ensure there are no sleeper modules of the (Pakistani) ISI in the city and on its outskirts,” said a senior intelligence official.

M. Punna Rao, head of the special investigation team, said people would be “suitably rewarded” if they come forward with any piece of information, including photographs or video clips, to help the police find clues.

Chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy said a proposed anti-terror special force of the state police, on the lines of the anti-Naxalite “greyhounds”, would be trained according to international standards.

Badminton meet off

The blasts have also taken their toll on an international badminton event. “It has been postponed and has been tentatively fixed for the second week of January,” national coach Pullela Gopichand said.

The $150,000 Indian Open championship had been scheduled from September 4 to 9.
Gopichand said Badminton World Federation vice-president Punch Gunalan wanted “players’ concerns to be taken into consideration”.