Jodhpur, India - Three worshippers died and 18 others were wounded in a bomb attack Thursday at one of India's most revered Islamic shrines in the northern state of Rajasthan, police said.
India sounded a nationwide alert after the attack, with some officials pointing the finger at hardline Muslim militants allegedly backed by neighbour and arch-rival Pakistan.
"It was a low intensity explosion. Preliminary information suggests a lunch box appeared to be packed with something which exploded," Rajasthan's home minister, Gulabchand Kataria, told AFP.
"These kinds of attacks are aimed at weakening the unity of the country and so we have sounded a nationwide alert," India's junior home minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal, said in New Delhi.
The explosion, for which there was no immediate claim of responsibility, happened outside the Dargah Sharif, or holy Dargah, in the state's pilgrimage town of Ajmer. The Sufi shrine is venerated by Hindus and Muslims.
Ajmer's police chief, Nand Kishore, said six of the victims were in critical condition. Three among the 18 hurt were children who were accompanying their parents to the ancient shrine, he added.
District official Deepak Upreti said the shrine was packed with worshippers at the time of the blast.
"These people had gathered for iftar when the explosion occurred," Upreti said, referring to the daily end of the dawn-to-dusk fasting period during the ongoing holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
The Press Trust of India quoted unnamed federal government officials as labelling the Ajmer blast as a "terror strike" staged by anti-Indian militants.
"The terror outfits, including Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, are against Sufi Islam and they can be prime suspects behind the blast," the news agency quoted one official as saying.
Sayeed Tariq, an eyewitness, told reporters the blast triggered mayhem in the narrow ally that leads to the shrine.
"There was a stampede as people shouted 'bomb, bomb' and ran from the shrine," he said.
Police sealed the area after the blast, and explosives experts have also been rushed to the area -- which is also popular among Western tourists visiting the state's vast desert.
Indian Muslim leaders called for calm after the blast, which comes days before Muslims celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and as Hindus also prepare for their main festive season.
"This is designed to disturb the peace and harmony of our country and we appeal to all to maintain peace," said Kamal Farooqui of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, India's official Muslim welfare body.
The explosion also comes ahead of a scheduled October 22 meeting in New Delhi of senior Indian and Pakistani officials on efforts to combat cross-border militancy.
India blames Pakistan for not doing enough to prevent Islamic extremists from using its soil as a springboard to launch attacks in India, especially in Kashmir, where a separatist revolt has claimed more than 44,000 lives since 1989.
Pakistan, which launched peace talks with India in 2004, denies the charge.
The two countries have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since their 1947 freedom from British colonial rule.