LUCKNOW, India (AFP) – Police in India shot dead a man suspected of links to triple bomb attacks that killed 23 people in Hinduism’s holiest city and sparked a nationwide terror alert.

Counter-terrorism forces gunned down the suspect just hours after the blasts in Varanasi, which also left 68 people wounded and raised fears of a Hindu backlash.

“Probably he was involved in the Varanasi blasts,” police superintendent Rajesh Pandey said after the authorities said they suspected “terrorists”, a euphemism for Islamic extremists, were behind the carnage on Tuesday evening.

The suspect was found with 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of explosives after he was shot on the outskirts of the Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow, 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of Varanasi.

The Press Trust of India news agency said the man, named by police as Salar, was a suspected member of the Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

Security forces were guarding key installations and holy sites across Uttar Pradesh state after the blasts at a Hindu temple and railway station in Varanasi, on the banks of the sacred Ganges river.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, which came a week before Holi, Hinduism’s festival of colour.

Television footage showed groups of angry Hindu right-wingers marching Wednesday through the alleyways near Varanasi’s Sankat Mochan temple, target of one of the bombs, chanting slogans against the secular Congress-led central government.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the federal government had put all states on alert and sealed off Varanasi, while his ministry’s most senior bureaucrat V.K. Duggal warned of the potential for religious violence.

Four people died last week in fierce clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Lucknow during protests against US President George W. Bush’s visit to India.

Tensions had already been running high in India’s most populous state after weeks of angry protests by Muslims against the publication by newspapers around the world of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

“We suspect terrorists because the modus operandi was similar to what had happened in Delhi,” said Yashpal Singh, state director general of police.

Triple blasts in markets and a bus in the Indian capital last October just before the major Hindu festival of Diwali, which killed 66 people, were carried out by Kashmiri Muslim separatists.

The death toll from the Varanasi blasts climbed to 23, with 68 others injured.

“Two more people died overnight in hospital and the toll is now 23,” said police official Paresh Pandey from the northern town.

The first blast tore into the temple — one of the oldest as well as one of the most beloved shrines in the ancient city — when it was packed with faithful carrying out their weekly Tuesday night worship.

Witnesses said a marriage ceremony was taking place at the temple, which was also filled with students offering prayers before their exams.

Within 10 minutes, two more bombs went off at the main railway station, said Kamlesh Pathak, the city’s deputy administrator.

One exploded outside the station master’s office while the other blew up a train carriage jammed with travellers preparing to go on holiday ahead of Holi next Wednesday.

Attacks on religious sites in India are not uncommon.

In 1992, more than 2,000 people were killed in religious riots after Hindu mobs razed a 16th-century mosque in the holy city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

The mosque was built on a site which Hindus claim was an ancient temple to the god Ram.

In 2002, around 30 people were killed when militants attacked Akshardham Hindu temple in western Gujarat state.