Sept. 29: Back-to-back explosions struck the country tonight, killing at least six persons in Muslim-dominated towns of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Both the explosions, possibly the first inter-state attacks on the same day, occurred at 9.30pm and outside mosques: a teenager died instantly when a crude bomb burst in Modasa, 110km from Ahmedabad in Sabarkantha district; around the same time, at least five persons were killed in Malegaon, one of Maharashtra’s most communally sensitive towns 280km northeast of Mumbai. Those who died are believed to be Muslims out on the roads soaked in festive spirit days before Id.

More than 10 people were wounded in Modasa and 21 in Malegaon. Unconfirmed reports said at least five people had died in the Gujarat town and seven in Maharashtra.

Modasa, considered a sanctuary for Simi activists, is one of the few minority-dominated places in Gujarat and was among the most disturbed areas during the 2002 riots. Malegaon, a Muslim-dominated town in Nashik district, was wracked by a terror strike on the Noorani Masjid two years ago which killed 37.

Gujarat police, who had earlier in the day found 17 crude devices in Ahmedabad, said the bomb used in Modasa resembled those seized.

Maharashtra police, who had last week claimed they had nabbed the mastermind and key persons behind the recent spate of terror attacks, appeared to be in the dark. Initially, they claimed it was a gas cylinder that had burst, then said it was a crude bomb, only to retract later in the night, maintaining that officials would ascertain what had actually happened.

Residents of Malegaon, still traumatised by the 2006 explosion, attacked the Azad Nagar police station when they heard that the blast had been attributed to a leaking gas cylinder.

Two constables and one officer were injured when the mob of around 250-300 people started throwing stones at the force and burnt a jeep. The police retaliated by firing two rounds. Some reports said one person died in the firing. Night curfew has been clamped.

Witnesses in Malegaon said a device was planted in a motorcycle parked outside a popular vada-pav kiosk in a narrow alley near the Noorani Masjid. “Many have injuries that suggest an explosion like a bomb blast,” said a medical officer.

The explosions in Modasa, on the eve of Navratri, had uncanny similarities with the blast in Delhi’s Mehrauli market on Saturday, in which a child who had picked up a black, plastic bag flung by motorcyclists was blown up.

Witnesses said around four youths riding two motorcycles reached Sukha Bazaar, a place famous for its non-vegetarian eateries and usually teeming with people at dinner time, and one of them dropped a black, plastic bag just outside a mosque. The device inside the bag went off within a minute or so.