"inadequate" hospital facilities while Christians urged authorities to better protect religious minorities.
Government-run hospitals in the city, Malegaon, have struggled to treat the rush of patients because of inadequate facilities and the lack of specialists, Indian media reported.
Many families reportedly took wounded relatives to a small private hospital, where a lone doctor treated more than 100 victims. Victims in critical condition from the blast were sent to Bombay, now officially known as Mumbai, said the United Press International (UPI) news agency.
Up to 38 people were killed and nearly 200 wounded in the blasts, near a burial ground, the town square and a mosque and when Muslims left Friday prayers there. The head of India’s ruling Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, arrived in the town to visit with the wounded and relatives of the dead, news reports said.
NO RESPONSIBILITY CLAIMS
There have been no claims of responsibility for the attacks, and authorities imposed a curfew on Malegaon, amid concern that the blasts might spark clashes between the local Muslim and Hindu communities.
UPI reported that families say the hospitals’ inability to treat the victims points up failures in local healthcare — an issue they claim they have long complained about, most recently after a disease outbreak in which 3,000 people had to be hospitalized.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said he would look into their grievances. News of the lack of apparent medical assistance for India’s minority Muslims came as the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) urged authorities "to work actively in restoring the faith of all communities in the rule of law and equity in administration," in India, a predominantly Hindu nation.
CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY CONCERNED
The GCIC told BosNewsLife that the "Christian community, itself the victims of a sustained hate campaigns and violence against its people, institutions and holy symbols, condemns such gruesome acts of wanton violence."
Christian leaders of the GCIC, a major advocacy groups, and other organizations have expressed concerns that local politicians, backed by militants, often allow violence to take place against religious minorities.
"Our sympathies and our prayers are with the kin of the dead, and with those recovering from injuries sustained in today’s explosions," added GCIC President Sajan K George in a statement to BosNewsLife. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from India).
