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Explosions Rock India

for Second Day

MUMBAI -- A series of 16 explosions from low-intensity bombs ripped through the city of Ahmedabad, the capital of the western Indian state of Gujarat, killing at least 29 and injuring at least 88 people, just one day after a series of seven explosions rocked the high-technology center of Bangalore in the south of the country.

Both events, coming just one day apart, serve as a reminder of how the country, despite its economic expansion in the past few years, remains vulnerable to terrorism. The attacks appear also to reinforce the recent trend of bombings in India targeted at symbolically important regional cities.

Gujarat has been a magnet for companies in the past few years, attracted by its relatively orderly and pro-business state government. Yet Ahmedabad also was the scene of massive Hindu-Muslim violence in 2002 which left more than 2,000 dead. Some of the bombs in Ahmedabad appeared targeted at civilian hospitals, according to Indian television reports, and were detonated in waves across the city Saturday evening.