Indian cinema blasts kill one, injure dozens

At least one person died and 44 people were injured when two crude bombs exploded yesterday in New Delhi cinemas screening a film considered as offensive by some Sikhs, police said.

The bombs exploded mid-evening when the city's movie theatres are normally packed.

Several other cinema halls across the city were evacuated immediately after the blasts, which also came on the first anniversary of the coalition government's rise to power.

At least 44 people were hurt at one of the theatres, where shattered glass and debris littered the ground, police said. Witnesses said there was no major damage to the building.

Indian television said several people were injured at the second cinema. Witnesses said both blasts appeared to be relatively minor.

Police said both explosions appeared to be caused by "crude bombs".

The two cinemas were showing a film called Jo Bole So Nihal, part of a Sikh religious and battle cry which translates as "Blessed is the one who says God is eternal!"

The Hindi language film centres around a Sikh policeman, called Nihal Singh, who is hoodwinked by a criminal and goes on a global hunt to nab him.

Some Sikh groups had taken offence at the use of the religious phrase in the title and to some scenes in the film which showed characters entering Sikh places of worship without removing their shoes and covering their heads - considered sacrilege by Sikhism.

Following the outcry, the film, released this month, was withdrawn from theatres across the northern Indian state of Punjab, the heartland of the Sikhs.