created by series of bomb blasts
HYDERABAD, India (AP) - The southern Indian city of Hyderabad is trying to heal itself.
A series of bombings - two last month and another in May - created a distance between the city's Hindu and Muslim communities. Now both groups are trying to bridge the gap.
On Friday, a Hindu community group organized a massive Iftar feast for Muslims who are fasting from dawn to dusk through the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. This year, part of the month coincides with the Hindu festival of Ganesha Chaturthy.
Ramadan started in India on Sept. 14, the same day Hindus began observing the two-week Ganesha Chaturthy celebrations. The Hindu festival ends Tuesday with the immersion of statues of the elephant-headed Ganesha, the Hindu god of good fortune and wisdom.
"Both the Ganesha festival and Ramadan have come together, and both the communities are celebrating their religious festivals. Here we have come together to share our happiness," said Gopal Reddy, the president of Kabeer Nagar Ganesha Utsav Samiti, one of the organizers of Friday's Iftar feast.
Hundreds of Muslims attended the event, mingling with and hugging their Hindu hosts.
The menu was vegetarian in keeping with Hindu custom, and dates were offered to the guests in keeping with the widely followed Muslim practice of breaking the day's fast by eating a date to follow the example of Prophet Muhammad.
The two recent blasts on Aug. 25 in crowded areas of the city killed at least 43 people. Another 11 were killed when a bomb tore through the 17th century Mecca mosque in May.
In both cases the police said they were investigating links to Islamic militant groups.
No reasons were given about why Muslims would attack the mosque, but the militants are routinely blamed even when Muslims are targeted.
Such accusations stoke resentment among Muslims, who account for about 130 million of India's 1.1 billion people, about 80 percent of whom are Hindu.
Thousands of police will be deployed in the city on Tuesday when Hindu processions carry Ganesha statues to the Hussain Sagar lake, Hyderabad's police commissioner Balwinder Singh has said.
Hyderabad is a city of 7 million people, about 40 percent of whom are Muslim, and has long been plagued by communal tensions - and occasional inter-religious bloodshed.
Hindus, Muslims in southern India try to close rift
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