ADG Bhardwaj, however, asserted that the state police had beefed up security in and around the temple following the intelligence alert.

“It is the BTMC that maintains its private security inside the temple. The state and central security forces are deployed outside the temple,” he said.

Neither the security personnel nor the monks had any clue about how and when the trouble-makers entered the premises with bombs in their possession and planted them with timers fixed meticulously. The monks and BTMC officials said the main temple remains open for parikrama (making the rounds) from 4am to 9pm on all days of the week. But the monks wishing to meditate could stay under the Mahabodhi tree all through the night.

The blasts took place when there were not many people on the premises.

“Otherwise, the casualty would have been far more,” said a shop-keeper, conjecturing that the “terrorists, perhaps, made a symbolic attack. They had not planned to kill too many people and cause much damage to the temple”.

The BJP was quick to pick on the blasts as an example of Nitish’s “failed” administration. Former urban development and housing minister and Gaya MLA Prem Kumar, who shouted slogans of “Nitish Kumar wapas jao (Nitish go back)”, said: “Nitish failed to respond to the IB alert about the terrorist attack on the temple.”