Hyderabad blasts: Five students among 14 dead

Hyderabad: A trip to purchase books for the exam of sub-inspector in Excise department proved to be the last outing of Vijay Kumar, who was among the five students killed in the twin blasts in the city. Among the other students killed was Rajasekhar, who was pursuing MBA, Harish, an engineering student from Kottapet locality in the city, and Swapna, another MBA student. [caption id=“attachment_635494” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Bodies of 13 out of the 14 killed in the blast have been identified. AP[/caption] Vijay Kumar had come to the site to purchase some books as he was preparing to take the examination for the post of sub-inspector in Prohibition and Excise department when the blast took place. Another deceased student — Azaz Ahmed -— of Kottagudem in Khammam too had came to purchase books. Bodies of 13 out of the 14 killed in the blast have been identified. Of the 119 injured, most are in the age group of 19 to 22 years, police said. Two powerful near simultaneous blasts had ripped through a crowded area close to a cluster of bus stands in Dilsukhnagar area yesterday. The blasts, triggered by Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) tied to two bicycles, took place at two sites 100 metres apart outside a roadside eatery near Konark and Venkatadiri theatres in the area, located on the Hyderabad-Vijaywada national highway in Cyberabad police limits. Dilsukhnagar is one of the densely populated and busy corridors of the city as bus stop here connects to almost all the parts of Hyderabad. A large fleet of buses make a halt here to pickup and drop commuters. The area also has a number of educational institutions and one of the business markets in the city. Suspected terrorists targeted the area for the second time in ten years. Earlier, the area had witnessed an explosion in 2002 near Saibaba temple in which two persons were killed. Meanwhile, the state BJP unit has called for a statewide bandh today to protest the twin blasts, party president G Kishen Reddy said. PTI