Police question brothers in India holy city blast

Lucknow, India - Police were questioning two brothers for their alleged involvement in a blast that killed a toddler and triggered a stampede that left many others wounded in a holy Indian city, a top police official said Wednesday.

The men were detained in Mumbai, India's financial hub, after investigators determined that an e-mail claiming responsibility for the blast in Varanasi town had been sent from a laptop belonging to the two, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The bomb hidden in a metal canister exploded Tuesday evening as thousands gathered for a daily Hindu ritual on the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi.

A banned Muslim terror group allegedly claimed responsibility for the blast in the e-mail, which was sent to several media outlets soon after the blast. The police official said investigators were checking the veracity of the claim by the group, Indian Mujaheddin, that it was behind the blast.

The bomb was stashed in a milk container on the Sheetla Ghat, one of many stone staircases leading to the Ganges river, the site of daily spiritual rituals, according to police official Brij Lal.

The explosion set off a stampede, and 19 people, including four foreigners, were wounded, Lal said. It was not immediately clear how many were hurt in the blast and how many in the subsequent chaos.

A 2-year-old who had been sitting on her mother's lap when the bomb went off died in a hospital, Lal said. Her mother and two other people, including one of the foreigners, were in serious condition.

The force of the explosion ripped away a metal railing and damaged stones up to 200 feet (60 meters) away, said a witness, Ramatama Srivastava.

Srivastava - who spoke by telephone from Varanasi, which is about 180 miles (300 kilometers) southeast of the Uttar Pradesh state capital, Lucknow - said he noticed the foreigners were watching the Hindu prayer ceremony and taking photographs.

The ceremony is a daily ritual in Varanasi, the holiest city in the Hindu religion, during which priests and others light oil lamps, ring bells and chant prayers to worship the Ganges.

The Indian government issued a nationwide alert. Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram was scheduled to visit the site later Wednesday to review security arrangements.

Hundreds of worshippers flocked to the Sheetla Ghat at dawn Wednesday to offer morning prayers. Additional police were posted at the site and the crowd of worshippers was much the same as usual, said Surendra Srivastav, a police spokesman in Lucknow.

In March 2006, twin bombings blamed on a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group tore through a train station and a temple in Varanasi, killing 20 people.