2008 Ahmedabad bombings

The 2008 Ahmedabad bombings were a series of 21 bomb blasts that hit Ahmedabad, India, on 26 July 2008, within a span of 70 minutes. 56 people were killed and over 200 people were injured. Ahmedabad is the cultural and commercial heart of Gujarat state, and a large part of western India. The blasts were considered to be of low intensity, and were similar to the Bangalore blasts, Karnataka which occurred the day before.

Several TV channels said they had received an e-mail from a terror outfit called Indian Mujahideen claiming responsibility for the terror attacks; Islamic militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, however, has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Gujarat police arrested the suspected mastermind, Mufti Abu Bashir, along with nine others, in connection to the bombings.

These bombings occurred a day after the Bangalore blasts and a day before a bomb blast in the Indian state of Jharkhand.

The bombs were planted in Tiffin carriers on bicycles, a pattern similar to the 13 May 2008 Jaipur bombings. Many of the blasts targeted the city bus service of AMTS (Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service), ripping apart portions of the vehicles. Two blasts took place inside the premises of two hospitals, about 40 minutes after the initial series of blasts. One of the blasts in the hospitals occurred when injured victims of the initial series of blasts were being admitted there. Another bomb was found and defused on the following day in the Hatkeshwar area. Two live bombs were also retrieved from Maninagar, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's constituency.

Gujarat police recovered and defused two more bombs in Surat, another major city in Gujarat, a day after the Ahmedabad blasts. Two cars filled with materials required to make explosives, including detonators, were also found, one of them parked on a roadside near a hospital, and the other in the outskirts of Surat.