11 killed, 80 injured in blasts: Andhra CM

Hyderabad, Feb 21: The two bomb blasts in Dilsukhnagar area here Thursday evening claimed 11 lives and injured 80 others, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said.

He told reporters that five or six were "severely" injured.

"We condemn this barbaric act. The state government along with central government will see to it that the culprits are booked as early as possible," he said.

"We condemn this act of terrorism on innocent people. This is only to disturb peaceful living of all communities in Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh," he said while appealing to people to maintain peace.

The chief minister, who earlier visited the blast site, said the two places where the blasts took place are 150 meters from each other.

Reddy announced an ex-gratia of Rs.6 lakh to each the kin of those killed and Rs.50,000 to Rs.1 lakh to the injured depending on the severity of their injuries. He also declared that the state government would bear the cost of their treatment.

The chief minister said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde spoke to him. "They assured all help from the centre and asked us to be alert about any such incidents happening again."

Reddy said an alert was sounded across the state and police were directed to take all steps to prevent such incidents.

On whether the state had received any alerts from the centre, the chief minister said like all other states, Andhra Pradesh also received alerts after the hangings of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru.

The chief minister said the state had formed special teams to track down the culprits while the special teams were also arriving from New Delhi.

IANS