A series of near-simultaneous explosions rocked the Indian capital on Saturday evening, tearing through a bus and two markets jammed with people shopping for gifts ahead of an upcoming Hindu festival. At least 61 people were killed and 188 injured in the blasts, a home ministry official said on Sunday.
The three blasts that sent shards of glass, wood and all manner of goods flying. Police declared a state of emergency and ordered all the markets in the city closed.
While urging people to remain calm, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh denounced the apparently coordinated bombings as terrorist attacks.
”These are dastardly acts of terrorism,” Singh said in a brief televised statement. ”We shall defeat their nefarious designs and will not allow them to succeed. We are resolute in our commitment to fighting terrorism in all forms.”
Asked who was responsible, he would only say ”there are several clues”. However, the Indian government faces opposition from dozens of militant groups — particularly Kashmiri separatists, some of whom also oppose the peace process between Pakistan and India.
Early on Sunday, however, India and Pakistan made another step toward peace, agreeing to open the militarised border in Kashmir region to help victims of South Asia’s devastating October 8 quake, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.
In the agreement, which followed 12 hours of talks in Pakistan’s capital, the two sides agreed to open crossings beginning on November 7 at five points across the Line of Control, the ceasefire boundary that divides the Himalayan region between the archrivals. The agreement should help bring food, shelter and medical aid to victims of the earthquake, which killed about 80 000 people, most of them in Pakistan.
In New Delhi, the first blast took place about 5.45pm in the central Paharganj market, which was crowded with shoppers ahead of Tuesday’s Diwali festival, a Hindu holiday where families gather to exchange gifts, light candles and celebrate with fireworks. Minutes later, two more blasts exploded at the Sarojini Nagar market and on a bus.
”When I got up, there were people everywhere — they were bleeding and screaming,” said shop owner Anil Gupta about 45 minutes after the blast as he sifted through the wreckage of his jewellery store. Scattered around his feet were bracelets, necklaces and earrings.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil urged people to stay off the streets.
”I appeal to you. Please disperse from the markets and go back to your families,” he said in a televised address.
Patil said at least 39 people were killed in the blast at the Sarojini Nagar market.
Sham Lal, an official with the Delhi fire department, said at least 16 people died in the Paharganj market blast, and another three were killed on a bus in the Govindpuri neighbourhood. He had no further details.
Condemnation
Pakistan strongly condemned the attacks, calling them ”barbaric” and a ”criminal act of terrorism”.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the blasts ”appear to have been targeted at heavily populated areas to produce maximum carnage”.
”This is yet another example of terrorists’ cynical and callous disregard for human life,” Straw added. ”On behalf of the British government, I would like to offer the people of India my support and deepest sympathy.”
Even if the bombers turn out to be Kashmiri militants — and officials had said nothing by early Sunday to indicate that was the case — it may not be enough to derail the peace talks. With Pakistan’s quick condemnation of the explosions, as well as the shared misery of the October 8 earthquake and the agreement to open the Line of the Control, the relatively good relations between the longtime enemies could endure.
Also, while New Delhi is rarely a target for militants, they have carried out numerous attacks in Kashmir, including since the earthquake, without disrupting the talks.
”This is yet another example of terrorists’ cynical and callous disregard for human life,” British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he ”firmly condemned the terrorist attacks”.
South African President Thabo Mbeki also condemned the series of bomb blasts.
In a message to his counterpart, Indian President Dr Abdul Kalam, Mbeki said: ”Please accept the condolences of the South African government and people following this dastardly act of terror.
”The South African government joins the international community in condemning these heinous acts of terrorism, particularly in a country that espouses the principles of democracy and freedom of its people.”
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned what he called the ”terrorist outrage” in New Delhi.
”The secretary general is appalled by and condemns the series of terrorist bombings which have resulted in many deaths in the Indian capital,” a statement released by Annan’s press office said. ”The secretary general is particularly shocked that this latest terrorist outrage has occurred on the eve of the major Hindu festival of Diwali.”
‘Black smoke everywhere’
Witnesses said the blasts rocked entire neighbourhoods.
Babu Lal Khandelwal, a shop owner in the Paharganj market, an area near the train station packed with small shops and inexpensive hotels often filled with foreign backpackers, said the blast knocked him to the ground.
”There was black smoke everywhere. When the smoke was cleared and I could see, there were people bloody and people lying in the street,” Khandelwal said.
The blast occurred in a small square of the market and badly damaged a row of shops, including Khandelwal’s clothing store, Hirasons.
About an hour after the explosion, investigators stood around a small crater filled with debris about 3m from the string of shops.
All around, broken glass and other debris littered the street, shops signs were ripped and twisted and clothes — mostly T-shirts and scarves — hung from low-strung power lines.
The second blast targeted the market in Sarojini Nagar, a popular shopping district in the southern part of the city offering everything from knock-off designer clothing to kitchen crockery.
Satinder Lal Sharma said some boys warned him about an unclaimed bag near a tree and he ”started shouting ‘Run! run!”’ just before the explosion. It destroyed several shops and left the tree charred and stripped of leaves.
Govind Singh, who sells wallets and toys on cart next to a juice shop devastated in the explosion, said at least five people from his village died in the blast.
The explosion was ”so loud that I fell down. Then a fire started,” he said.
”I took out at least 20 bodies; most of them were children,” Singh said. He and others wrapped the bodies in sheets that were being sold by one of the destroyed shops.
At Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, Dr SK Sharma, the emergency-room chief, said four victims of the first blast were dead on arrival and ”charred beyond recognition”.
The hospital was treating another 30 injured from the same explosion, he said.
However, the burns were not caused by chemicals and most shrapnel injuries had come from flying glass — not the screws or ball bearings sometimes packed into crude bombs, Sharma said.
”Those who were nearby [the blasts], they got burn injuries; those who were just nearby got burn and splinter injuries,” he said.
As he spoke, an ambulance pulled up and paramedics wheeled more victims into the hospital. — Sapa-AP
Associated Press reporter Neelesh Misra contributed to this report