The second explosion, at the crowded Gokul Chat, in the Koti market area, left nearly 25 dead. Such was the intensity of the blasts that many bodies were blown to bits, while others were mangled beyond recognition.

“We heard the blast and people started running out past us. Many of them had blood streaming off them,” said P K Verghese, security manager at the laser show. “It was complete chaos. We had to remove the security barriers so people could get out.”

Heart-rending scenes were witnessed at Osmania hospital here, where the dead and injured were brought, with wailing relatives thronging the premises. “I am looking for my niece who went to buy some books at a bookshop in Koti, overlooking Gokul Chat,” said a relative of Pratyusha, a young student who could not be traced till late tonight.

Police later recovered two unexploded bombs from a cinema hall in the busy Dilsukhnagar area and another from Narayanaguda. A bomb threat was received by an IMAX hall near Lumbini Park.

Cops rewind to Mecca Masjid blast, but that probe going nowhere

Date: May 18, 2007

A bomb explodes in the open-air courtyard at the historical Mecca Masjid mosque as Friday prayers are concluding. Bomb squad defuses a second bomb.

Main accused

Fingers point to Shahid Bilal alias Abdul Rehman, 24, a former Hyderabad resident linked to terror groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Harkat-ul-Jehadi, an explosives expert with a history in Hyderabad

The Status of investigation

... contd.