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Five injured in Thane blast

MUMBAI — At least five people were injured when a crude bomb, attached to a cycle parked in the basement of a theatre in Thane, went off yesterday evening.

On Saturday, another crude bomb was found inside a theatre in Vashi in Navi Mumbai. The police later exploded the bomb in an open ground outside the theatre. No one was injured in that incident, which occurred just a day before the finals of the Indian Premier League tournament, held at the near-by DY Patil stadium at Nerul.

Incidentally, both the theatres were staging a Marathi play, Aamhi Pachpute, which has angered some right wing organisations, who have accused the director of hurting the sentiments of Hindus.

According to the Thane police control room, the low-intensity explosive was wrapped in a plastic bag and was attached to a bicycle that had been left in the parking lot of the Gadkari Rangayatan. Some employees of the theatre saw the plastic bag and tried to remove it from the cycle, when it exploded, injuring them.

While the authorities have not ruled out the possibility of some terrorist organisation being involved in the two blasts, they are also trying to see whether there is any connection between the Vashi and Thane blasts with the one that occurred in Panvel in February.

A crude bomb exploded at the Cineraj theatre in Panvel — also located in Navi Mumbai — in February when the film, Jodhaa Akbar, was being screened. No one was injured in the Panvel blast. Many Rajasthan-based Hindu organisations had objected to the film.

The police were alerted about the bomb inside the Vishnudas Bhave auditorium in Vashi by an alert citizen. Police suspect that amateurs had assembled the crude bombs on all three occasions, with the objective of scaring film- and theatre-goers, targeting the play and the movie.

Last June, the police had to provide security in some theatres when Marathi play Yada Kadachit was being staged in Maharashtra. Many Hindu organisations had lashed out at Santosh Pawar, the director of the play, for allegedly ridiculing the religion.

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