Man held for questioning over Bodh Gaya blasts

The National Investigating Agency (NIA) today detained one person for questioning in connection with the serial blasts in Bihar's Bodh Gaya, in which two Buddhist monks were injured at the Mahabodhi temple.

Police Deputy Inspector General Nayyer Hasnain Khan said an identity card was found within the temple premises on Sunday, on the basis of which the person was detained. Khan said the NIA was interrogating him.

''One suspect hailing from Barachatti block in Gaya has been detained and we are questioning him. We have been analysing the footage and based on that some more people would be questioned soon,'' a senior police official told PTI.

''All the CCTV cameras in the Mahabodhi temple premises were fully functional. As you must have seen in the CCTV footage, both state security personnel and temple's own security personnel were present. I don't think there was any lapse on security front,'' the official said.

A five-member NIA team comprising a DIG and two superintendents reached the historic city from Delhi on Sunday by a special plane and went straight to the Mahabodhi temple to start investigations.

Security has been stepped up at the temple and adjoining areas.

Terror struck one of the holiest Buddhist shrines and other places in Bihar's pilgrimage town of Bodh Gaya on Sunday with simultaneous triggering of nine low intensity bombs.

While four blasts took place inside the Mahabodhi temple complex, three occurred inside the Karmapa monastery, and one each near the famous 80-ft Buddha statue and at the bus stand near bypass.

The temple's sanctum sanctorum and the Bodhi Tree, under which Lord Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment, did not suffer any damage in the blasts.