Rohingya link probed in Bodh Gaya shrine bombing
India has ordered security to be tightened at Buddhist shrines across the country after bomb blasts at the world-famous Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar state were linked to growing tensions between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in neighbouring Myanmar.
Security was also stepped up at Dharamsala, home of the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and Tibet’s government-in-exile in India.
Investigations revealed that 13 bombs filled with ammonium nitrate and sulphur and packed with nails had been planted at various spots in and around the temple complex situated in Bodh Gaya. Two Buddhist monks were hurt in the blasts early on Sunday.
Nine bombs went off while three were later defused.
Federal and state investigators started poring over hours of footage from 15 cameras installed where the blasts took place.
Though India has suffered terrorist attacks over the years, an attack on a Buddhist target is unusual. The temple is on the target list of the Indian Mujahideen, a terror outfit, in retaliation against the treatment of Rohingya Muslims.
India is the third country after Malaysia and Indonesia to be hit by the fallout from the anti-Muslim wave in Myanmar.
While Indian investigators have yet to confirm who were behind Sunday’s blasts, security experts are already pinning the blame on Islamic militants.
Though of low intensity, the blasts sent a “powerful and destabilising message”, said Brahma Chellaney, professor of Strategic Studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research.
“We had expected something to happen. There were indications, because it is too dangerous for them to strike in Myanmar; there would be swift and immense repercussions,” said a Yangon-based security source who asked not to be named.
“But we could not say where it would happen. In retrospect, Bodh Gaya was a soft target with low security. This trend is very disturbing. And it will elicit a reaction from the Buddhists, which is what they want.”
Chellaney noted that it was not only in Myanmar that Muslims had been the target of nationalist Buddhists. Sri Lanka has also seen a backlash against minority Muslims.
However, those who would suffer the most would be the Rohingya – stateless minority Muslims in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state whom the majority Buddhists regard as illegal immigrants bent on Islamising the state.
