NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Three powerful bombs ripped through New Delhi markets packed with families and shoppers on Saturday ahead of the biggest Hindu and Muslim festivals of the year, killing over 50 people and wounding scores more.
Charred bodies, blood, glass and smoking debris littered the scenes as rescuers frantically pulled out the dead and injured while thousands of survivors milled around in shock trying to find out what had happened to missing relatives.
At least 51 people were killed in the blasts which occurred within minutes of each other, said an aide to Delhi state Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Fifty-four people were injured, the aide said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared it an act of terrorism, while adding it was too early to speculate who was responsible.
"There was a huge sound," said Sunita, who lives near one of the devastated markets, in an area also poplar with foreign backpackers. "I saw many people lying on the ground. I saw a child's arm cut off and somebody else's brain smashed out. It was very bad. Very bad."
Singh and other officials called for calm and police in the financial capital, Mumbai, put the city on high alert. Markets around Delhi began closing down as emergency vehicles battled their way through gridlocked streets.
"He is very distressed," Singh's spokesman told reporters. "India will never be defeated by terrorism."
India has blamed previous attacks on the capital on Pakistan-based militants, including one on parliament in 2001 that killed more than a dozen people and brought India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear war.
But the country is also racked by scores of rebellions and two cinema blasts blamed on Sikh separatists killed one person and injured dozens in May.
As it has with previous attacks, Pakistan immediately condemned "these terrorist blasts." Indian officials said the powerful explosive RDX was used in all three explosions.
US WARNING
The United States recently warned its citizens of a possible terrorist attack on U.S. interests in Delhi and elsewhere and Indian authorities are hunting a suspected al Qaeda operative here. The city's American Embassy School canceled all classes for Monday after Saturday's attacks.
"We saw bodies terribly charred, limbs missing. It was a horrible sight, a terrible sight," one British tourist told NDTV television. "Don't let the terrorists win."
The first blast was reported in the Paharganj district, near the main New Delhi railway station and an area popular with foreign backpackers. Shopkeepers there cleared their carts and used them as makeshift stretchers to rush victims to hospital.
Other explosions were at the Sarojini Nagar market in south Delhi and in Govindpuri, a southern suburb.
Chief Minister Dikshit said the attacks were clearly planned to spark terror.
"It is something that has been planned, that is quite obvious," she told reporters. "It was someone whose intentions are not good, that is also obvious.
"It's a very sad day for all of us. The fact that these blasts came and took away so many lives has dampened our spirits and made us feel very sad."
On Tuesday, Hindus celebrate Diwali, or the festival of lights, and later in the week Muslims end the fasting month of Ramadan with Eid al-Fitr.
Delhi's 14 million people are mostly Hindu, like in the rest of India, but there are about 1.7 Muslim residents in the city.
The blasts occurred just on dusk on a fine autumn evening, with Delhi's markets and streets crammed with families, holidaymakers and shoppers, many dressed in their colorful best for the coming festivals.
The wail of scores of sirens were punctuated by almost continuous explosions from fireworks being set off ahead of Diwali.
The blast at Govindpuri occurred near an overcrowded bus and could have been much worse, officials said.
The conductor noticed two men had left their bag behind and shouted at them, while a passenger opened it. The conductor hurled the bag into nearby brush, where it exploded.
NEW DELHI - Near-simultaneous explosions rocked the Indian capital Saturday evening, tearing through a bus and two markets crowded with people shopping for gifts for a Hindu festival. At least 58 people were killed and dozens wounded in the blasts, which the government blamed on terrorists.
Police declared a state of emergency and closed all city markets. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged calm while denouncing the apparently coordinated bombings, which did not prevent an unprecedented India-Pakistan agreement to open the
Kashmir border to facilitate aid for survivors of the region's devastating Oct. 8 earthquake.
"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." 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.
The first explosion hit at 5:45 p.m. in New Delhi's main Paharganj market, leaving behind bloodstained streets and mangled stalls of wood and twisted metal. Within minutes came an explosion at the popular Sarojini Nagar market and the bus blast in the Govindpuri neighborhood. Police said at least 60 people were wounded in the first blast and dozens in the other two.
The attacks targeted the many people shopping just days before the festival of Diwali, a major Hindu holiday during which families exchange gifts, light candles and celebrate with fireworks. The markets where the blasts occurred often sell fireworks that are elaborate and potentially dangerous.
"When I got up, there were people everywhere — they were bleeding and screaming," Anil Gupta said about 45 minutes after the blast as he sifted through the wreckage of his jewelry store. Scattered around his feet were bracelets, necklaces and earrings.
The explosions erupted just hours after India and Pakistan began the talks on opening the heavily militarized border in disputed Kashmir to help get food, shelter and medical aid to victims of the Himalayan region's quake, which killed about 80,000 people, most in Pakistan.
Opening the border is extremely sensitive for India because of a 16-year insurgency by Islamic militants in Kashmir who seek to make the Indian portion independent or unite it with Pakistan.
Despite the blasts, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said early Sunday that the two sides agreed to open the frontier at five spots beginning Nov. 7. Shipments of aid supplies will be allowed to cross at those points, and Kashmiri civilians will be allowed to cross on foot, with priority given to those with families divided by the border.
Pakistan earlier condemned the multiple attacks in New Delhi.
"The attack in a crowded market place is a criminal act of terrorism. The people and government of Pakistan are shocked at this barbaric act and express deep sympathy with the families of the victims," a Foreign Ministry statement said.
Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice also condemned the attacks, which she said were "made more heinous in that they deliberately targeted innocent civilians preparing for holiday celebrations."
Rice said the attacks served as a "another sad reminder that terror knows no borders and respects no religion."
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 39 people were killed in Sarojini Nagar, a popular shopping district in southern part of the capital filled with everything from knockoff designer clothing to kitchen crockery. Fire department official Sham Lal said at least 16 people died in the Paharganj market blast, and three were killed on the bus.
Babu Lal Khandelwal, a shop owner in the Paharganj market, in an area near the train station packed with small stores and inexpensive hotels often filled with foreign backpackers, said the blast knocked him to the ground.
"There was black smoke everywhere," he said. "When the smoke was cleared and I could see, there were people bloody and people lying in the street."
The blast badly damaged a row of shops, including Khandelwal's clothing store. About an hour later, investigators stood around a small, debris-filled crater about 10 feet from the string of shops.
All around, broken glass and other wreckage littered the street, shop signs were ripped and twisted and clothes — mostly T-shirts and scarves — hung from low-strung power lines.
A witness to the second blast, 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 without 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 were killed.
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.
As he spoke someone asked him, "Where is Lal Chand?"
"He is gone," Singh replied, and then started crying.
At Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Dr. S.K. Sharma, the emergency room chief, said his team had received four victims from the first blast who arrived dead and "charred beyond recognition." They were treating 30 injured in the same explosion, he said.
He explained that burns were not caused by chemicals and most shrapnel injuries were from flying glass — not the screws or ball bearings sometimes packed into crude bombs. As he spoke, an ambulance pulled up and paramedics wheeled more victims into the hospital.
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Bansi Lal, a shopkeeper in one of the New Delhi markets blown up on Saturday, tried his best to help the victims.
"There were two foreigners who were on fire and they were begging me to help them," he said in the Sarojini Nagar market, where the explosion torched dozens of shops, causing chaos and mayhem.
"But I was in a daze," he said. "I could not help them."
The market was one of three areas hit by blasts on the eve of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, with tens of thousands of joyous shoppers buying gifts for friends and family. At least 50 people were reported dead.
"I had moved my pavement shop about two feet away from the usual spot and then it appeared as if 10 bombs had gone off together," said Sachinder Pal Singha, as blazes continued to burn their way through the devastated market.
"People were running in panic. I threw shawls on top of people because they were on fire," Singha said.
Naresh Kumar, a shopkeeper, said he saw injured people piled on the ground after the blast.
"I myself saw the police pulling out around 100 people from the spot," Kumar said. A witness in Paharganj, where the first blast occurred, spoke of mayhem.
"It was total devastation and chaos after the blast as shops went up in flames, windows were knocked out and bleeding people screamed and ran blindly in sheer terror," eyewitness R.K. Sharma told private television networks.
Dozens of people were injured, leaving blood on the pavements and the remains of ruined shops heaped in piles of wreckage on the streets.
Policemen, hospital staff, reporters and bystanders thronged the entrance to the wards at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, where many of the injured were taken.
The police had their hands full keeping the crowd from entering the wards as Delhi's chief minister Sheila Dikshit paid a visit to the hospital.
Jagminder Sharma tussled with police, frantically trying to get inside to see his injured teenage son. He was pushed away.
"We were buying new clothes," said Sharma, who was out with his wife, son and daughter. "The building we were in came down. The rest of us found each other and we were looking for my son when he came running up, covered in blood."
Sharma said his ears were still ringing from the blast.
Vinay Gupta was also trying to get inside to see his younger brother.
The pair had been at their shop in Paharganj when, Gupta said, a two-wheeler blew up outside.
"A woman and her daughter were outside. They died on the spot," said Gupta, his blue shirt drenched in blood.
Gupta's father was also hurt in the blast and taken to another hospital.
"My brother cut his foot. His sheets are drenched with blood," said Gupta.
Inside the hospital, about 10 people were lying on stretchers in two rooms of the emergency ward.
One woman lay unconscious with a drip in her arm, covered in a red blanket and surrounded by anxious relatives.
Against the wall, a man lay passed out on a stretcher. His forehead was heavily swollen and he had a deep gash, with several stitches, over his right eye.
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Bansi Lal, a shopkeeper in one of the New Delhi markets blown up on Saturday, tried his best to help the victims.
"There were two foreigners who were on fire and they were begging me to help them," he said in the Sarojini Nagar market, where the explosion torched dozens of shops, causing chaos and mayhem.
"But I was in a daze," he said. "I could not help them."
The market was one of three areas hit by blasts on the eve of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, with tens of thousands of joyous shoppers buying gifts for friends and family. At least 50 people were reported dead.
"I had moved my pavement shop about two feet away from the usual spot and then it appeared as if 10 bombs had gone off together," said Sachinder Pal Singha, as blazes continued to burn their way through the devastated market.
"People were running in panic. I threw shawls on top of people because they were on fire," Singha said.
Naresh Kumar, a shopkeeper, said he saw injured people piled on the ground after the blast.
"I myself saw the police pulling out around 100 people from the spot," Kumar said. A witness in Paharganj, where the first blast occurred, spoke of mayhem.
"It was total devastation and chaos after the blast as shops went up in flames, windows were knocked out and bleeding people screamed and ran blindly in sheer terror," eyewitness R.K. Sharma told private television networks.
Dozens of people were injured, leaving blood on the pavements and the remains of ruined shops heaped in piles of wreckage on the streets.
Policemen, hospital staff, reporters and bystanders thronged the entrance to the wards at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, where many of the injured were taken.
The police had their hands full keeping the crowd from entering the wards as Delhi's chief minister Sheila Dikshit paid a visit to the hospital.
Jagminder Sharma tussled with police, frantically trying to get inside to see his injured teenage son. He was pushed away.
"We were buying new clothes," said Sharma, who was out with his wife, son and daughter. "The building we were in came down. The rest of us found each other and we were looking for my son when he came running up, covered in blood."
Sharma said his ears were still ringing from the blast.
Vinay Gupta was also trying to get inside to see his younger brother.
The pair had been at their shop in Paharganj when, Gupta said, a two-wheeler blew up outside.
"A woman and her daughter were outside. They died on the spot," said Gupta, his blue shirt drenched in blood.
Gupta's father was also hurt in the blast and taken to another hospital.
"My brother cut his foot. His sheets are drenched with blood," said Gupta.
Inside the hospital, about 10 people were lying on stretchers in two rooms of the emergency ward.
One woman lay unconscious with a drip in her arm, covered in a red blanket and surrounded by anxious relatives.
Against the wall, a man lay passed out on a stretcher. His forehead was heavily swollen and he had a deep gash, with several stitches, over his right eye.
NEW DELHI - A caller claimed Sunday that a little-known Islamic group in the
Kashmir insurgency was behind terror bombings that killed at least 59 people at two crowded markets the day before in India's capital.
Police said earlier that 61 people died in the Saturday night explosions, but lowered the figure Sunday, saying some deaths had been counted twice.
Investigators were questioning numerous people after raids on dozens of small hotels across New Delhi. Authorities said they had gathered "lots of information" about the attacks, but declined to comment on the claim of responsibility.
With security tightened in New Delhi and across many states in India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held an emergency Cabinet meeting Sunday evening to discuss the attacks.
"We have lots of information but it is not proper to disclose it yet," Patil told journalists after the meeting. "Our people are making good progress. The investigation is going well."
A man saying he represented the militant group Islamic Inquilab Mahaz (Front for Islamic Uprising) made the claim in a call to the Kashmir News Service in India's portion of Kashmir, a Himalayan region also claimed by Pakistan where Muslim separatists have waged a 16-year-old insurgency.
The smaller group is tied to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, the most feared militant group in Kashmir, police said. U.S. officials have linked the group to al-Qaida.
The caller, who identified himself as Ahmed Yaar Ghaznavi, said the attack "was meant as a rebuff to the claims of Indian security groups" that militant fighters had been wiped out by military crackdowns and the mammoth earthquake that hit Oct. 8.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil refused to comment on the claim. But a leading anti-terrorism expert said earlier that the timing and nature of the bombings appeared to indicate the work of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
"It looks like Lashkar. They are the most active group here," said Vikram Sood, the former head of the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
A police spokesman said during the day that 22 people had been detained in the hotel raids, but declined to give further details, citing the sensitive nature of the investigation. Police officials later insisted no one was detained, but said people were being questioned.
The first explosion hit at 5:45 p.m. in New Delhi's main Paharganj market, killing 16 people and leaving bloodstained streets and mangled stalls of wood and twisted metal. Within minutes, an explosion at the Sarojini Nagar market killed 43 people and a bomb meant for a bus in the Govindpuri neighborhood injured nine.
Police said the three blasts wounded 188 people in all, several seriously.
Police hunting suspects announced a reward of $2,200 for any information that could be used to trace the bombers.
They said they were looking for a man in his 20s who refused to buy a ticket on the bus in the Govindpuri neighborhood, leaving behind a large black bag. When some of the 40 passengers raised an alarm, the driver and conductor examined it and threw it out just as the bomb went off, injuring them both along with seven other people.
Asked who was responsible for the attacks, Singh would only say "there are several clues." 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.
The explosions came just hours after India and Pakistan began talks on opening their heavily militarized border in disputed Kashmir to help get food, shelter and medical aid to victims of the earthquake that hit the region earlier this month. The quake killed about 80,000 people, most in Pakistan.
Opening the border is extremely sensitive for India because of the insurgency by Islamic militants in Kashmir who seek to make the Indian portion independent or unite it with Pakistan.
But despite the blasts, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Sunday the two sides agreed to open the border at five spots beginning Nov. 7. Shipments of aid supplies will be allowed to cross at those points, and Kashmiri civilians will be allowed to cross on foot, with priority given to those with families divided by the border.
Pakistan condemned the multiple attacks in New Delhi.
A police spokesman said authorities had detained 22 people in a sweep of dozens of small hotels in the Indian capital. But he would not give further details, citing the sensitive nature of the investigation.
A police officer with knowledge of the investigations said forensic experts were probing whether the powerful explosive RDX had been used in the attack. Witnesses said the biggest blast at the Sarojini Nagar market caused a huge ball of fire that the explosive commonly creates. Some militant groups in Kashmir are known to have expertise in using RDX.
A chemical explosive had been ruled out because there was no pungent smell reported after the blast, the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly.
The attacks targeted the many people shopping just days before the festival of Diwali, a major Hindu holiday during which families exchange gifts, light candles and celebrate with fireworks.
Delhi state's Chief Minister Sheila Dixit urged people to take precautions.
"Unless you do want to go shopping, please do not go to crowded areas. I am not saying there is a danger, but there could be a danger," she said.
On Sunday, many markets in New Delhi were reopened but not bustling with customers, an unusual scene in the run up to Diwali — northern India's most celebrated festival.
Soni Mishra in New Delhi | October 30, 2005 23:07 IST
Last Updated: October 30, 2005 23:11 IST
Saturday's three serial blasts in Delhi failed to dampen the Diwali and Id festive spirit in the capital, with residents coming out in large numbers for last minute shopping in markets decked up for the occasion across the city.
Unfazed by the terrorist attacks, all major markets in the capital remained open on Sunday as usual. Shopkeepers in Sarojini Nagar and Paharganj markets, the sites of two of the three blasts, also opened their establishments amidst an uneasy calm, sending a clear message that they could not be cowed down by terrorism.
On the occasion of Dhanteras, that precedes the Festival of Lights, the usual crowd of Diwali shoppers could be seen at major markets in Delhi like Lajpat Nagar, Greater Kailash, South Extension, Dilli Haat, Karol Bagh and Madhu Vihar amidst heavy police deployment.
"Life has to go on. Just because there was a blast, we cannot stop living," said Vandana, who had come to Sarojini Nagar for her Diwali shopping.
"No doubt, the blasts have left us shocked. But we are not scared and this is not going to stop us from celebrating Diwali," said Devinder, who came to the Karol Bagh market with his wife to buy jewellery on the occasion of Dhanteras.
The police constantly made announcements over the loudspeaker at regular intervals, appealing to the people to be alert and immediately report any suspicious-looking object that they came across.
At the Sarojini Nagar Market, the worst hit in the serial blasts, shocked shopkeepers looked on as workers of the New Delhi Municipal Council cleared the debris strewn around while the police kept the area out of bounds for people.
Refusing to be cowed down by acts of terrorism, Ashok Randhawa, president, Sarojini Nagar Market Traders Association, said, "We are opening our shops. We don't want the terrorists to think that they have succeeded in scaring us."
A large number of people from nearby areas had gathered in the market, giving the police a tough time keeping them away from the location of the blast.
"Although our shops will remain open, we are not thinking in terms of doing business at the moment. No doubt, we are going to make heavy losses," Randhawa said, appealing to the Delhi government to compensate the shop-owners whose goods were damaged in the blast.
In Paharganj, where the first blast took place, many shops were open.
A large number of foreign tourists have chosen to stay on in the area. "We are not scared," Moy, an Israeli tourist, said. "We love India and will go ahead with plans to see the country. We are not going back."
