A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team Sunday evening began its probe into the serial blasts in the Mahabodhi temple in Bihar's Bodh Gaya town, police officials said.
"An NIA team led by an IPS officer Vikas Vaibhav began probe into the serial blasts in Bodh Gaya soon after they arrived," said an official at police headquarters here.
According to police officials in Gaya, the NIA team was expected by the afternoon but their arrival was delayed due to bad weather.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who inspected the site soon after the blasts, had announced that the NIA would conduct a probe into the serial blasts in the temple.
Meanwhile, some Buddhist monks offered prayers amid chanting of holy scriptures at Mahabodhi temple Sunday evening.
"Only Buddhist monks were allowed in to offer prayers in the temple as usual. The government has decided not to discontinue the regular prayers and worship by monks in the temple," Bihar police chief Abhayanand.
The temple would, however, open Monday as usual for pilgrims and tourists after the NIA team completes the process of collecting evidence from the site.
States asked to step up security
The central government has asked the states to heighten security at important places in view of the serial blasts at Mahabodhi temple in Bihar's Bodh Gaya, home ministry officials said Sunday.
They said that an advisory had been issued to states as a "normal security precaution".
"The states have been asked to step up security at important places," an official said.
Officials said the Bihar government had been given intelligence inputs about the possibility of terror attack on the Mahabodhi temple.
They said there were inputs of radical elements trying to attack the place which receives a large number of national and international tourists.
The officials said that inputs were being sent to the state on a regular basis and one such input had been given less than a month back.
They said security agencies had also alerted about possibility of fringe elements targeting the revered temple in Bodh Gaya in view of sectarian violence in Myanmar where scores of people have been killed in unrest between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine state.