By Alistair Scrutton and Bappa Majumdar
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh willvisit the site of blasts in a communally sensitive westernIndian city on Monday as pressure grows on his government tobeef up its intelligence apparatus to counter a series ofbombings.
The 16 bombings that killed at least 45 people in Ahmedabadcame a day after another series of bombings in the IT hub ofBangalore, sparking criticism that authorities had been lax inprobing increasingly confident militant groups.
A group called the "Indian Mujahideen" said it carried outthe Ahmedabad attack, writing in an e-mail sent five minutesbefore the first blast that it was in revenge for a 2002massacre in Gujarat of around 2,500 people, mainly Muslims, byHindu mobs.
"Do whatever you can, within 5 minutes from now, feel theterror of Death!", the e-mail, seen by Reuters, said.
It warned the governments of several states to stopharassing, imprisoning and torturing Muslims and told mediaoutlets to stop their "propaganda war" against Muslims.
It also warned Mukesh Ambani, chairman of RelianceIndustries and one of the world's richest men, to think twicebefore building a luxury 27-story home on land in Mumbaipreviously owned by a Muslim charity.
Two separate series of bombings ripped through Ahmedabadwithin 90 minutes. The first series went off near busy markets.A second wave of bombs went off around a hospital, where atleast six people died. All were detonated with timers.
Many of the bombs were packed into metal tiffin boxes, usedto carry food, and stuffed with ball-bearings. Some were lefton bicycles and one was reportedly a car bomb.
The India Mujahideen said it carried out bombings thatkilled 63 people in the western city of Jaipur in May.
As was the case with Jaipur, India has often accusedmilitant groups from Pakistan and Bangladesh of helping localmilitants to carry out a wave of bombings in recent years, withtargets ranging from mosques to Hindu temples.
But few people are ever brought to trial.
"It would be interesting to know how many prosecutions havefollowed terror incidents in recent years," The Asian Age saidin its editorial on Monday.
"Typically, the police round up a few Muslim boys as beingterrorists and the courts let them off, so poor is theinvestigation or the basis of the initial arrests.
India's cities were on alert on Monday, with extra policestationed at many malls, train stations and temples.
Twelve people have been detained by police for questioningabout the Ahmedabad blasts, but there have been no arrests.
HINDU NATIONALISTS TARGETED?
Ahmedabad is the main city in the communally sensitive andrelatively wealthy western state of Gujarat. The state's ChiefMinister Narendra Modi is one of India's most controversialpoliticians, accused of turning a blind eye to the 2002 riots.
Ahmedabad and Bangalore are both in states ruled by theHindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and are among thecountry's fastest-growing.
Underscoring worries that another attack could be in thepipeline, two more unexploded bombs were found in cars in thecity of Surat on Sunday, one of the world's biggestdiamond-polishing centres, also located in Gujarat.
There have been calls to reinstate an anti-terrorism lawthat the government scrapped after it came to power in 2004.The law was criticised for giving police too many powers todetain people without charge and allowing the abuse ofgovernment opponents.
Police officers in many states said they rarely receivedwarnings from the country's intelligence services.
"It is difficult in any investigation without inputs, asyou start from scratch as you put together clues and humanintelligence," said Pankaj Kumar Singh, a top police officerprobing the Jaipur bombings said.
There are worries that more attacks could start to dent*business confidence, although years of attacks have had littleimpact on the booming economy. The attacks had little impact onthe stock market on Monday.
"These incidents are certainly not very good from investorpoint of view," said Krishnakumar Natarajan, chief executiveofficer of Mindtree Consulting Ltd, a software services firmbased in Bangalore:
"In the short term, there will be enormous concern amongoverseas investors and, therefore, we need to ensure that theseevents do not happen so frequently.
(Additional reporting by Rupam Jain Nair in Ahmedabad andKrittivas Mukherjee in New Delhi; Editing by Simon Denyer)
