NEW DELHI: It has become nauseatingly
familiar. Low-intensity bombs placed in crowded markets, killing and maiming
children, their parents, unsuspecting shoppers, unmindful of their caste, creed
or religion. Within a month and a half of Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad terror
blasts, Delhi was mauled on Saturday leaving 30 innocents dead and 90 injured.
(
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In
all, five bombs went off in less than half an hour. Two of them in the heart of
Delhi in Connaught Place, two at the upscale Greater Kailash M Block market in
south Delhi, and one, the most damaging one, in the crowded Ghaffar Market in
Karol Bagh.
Three more bombs were defused, one of them at the popular
Children's Park in India Gate, indicating the depraved mind of the
terrorists.
The Indian Mujahideen, regarded by security agencies as a
front of the Lashkar-Huji terror machine, has claimed responsibility for the
blasts. The Indian Mujahideen email, titled "the Message of Death", said: "In
the name of Allah, Indian Mujahideen strikes back once more. ... Do whatever you
can. Stop us if you can."
This group had sent emails before the UP
court blasts, the Jaipur and Ahmedabad blasts. This time, too, it sent an email
to media groups, however, 10 minutes after the first blast. And for the third
time, it specifically threatened
The Times of
India
for attacking terror.
The first blast took place at
Ghaffar Market at 6.10 pm. Soon after that, two explosions rocked Connaught
Place, one at Barakambha Road near Gopaldas Building at 6.30 pm and the other
near the Metro station at the Central Park at 6.31 pm. Almost simultaneously, a
blast hit M-block market in Greater Kailash-I near McDonald's and seven minutes
later another bomb went off near Prince Pan Corner in the same
market.
All blasts were of low intensity, and the defused bombs
suggest they used the cocktail of ammonium nitrate, gun powder, ball bearings
and nails, with timer devices , the same kind of bombs that were used in Jaipur,
Bangalore and Ahmedabad, indicating that it's the same group that's wreaking
terror across the country.
Eyewitnesses said that explosives at
Connaught Place were kept in a dustbin in Central Park of Connaught Place while
at Gopaldas building, the bombs were kept in a dustbin next to the bus stand. An
11-year-old boy, Rohit (name changed) who had witnessed two persons wearing a
black dress putting two plastic bags inside the dustbin, is being examined by
the cops.
Police say the first blast in Karol Bagh was the result of
a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) cylinder explosion. The impact of the blasts in
Karol Bagh could be gauged by the fact that an auto was thrown up in the air and
got caught in the electrical wires. "The terrorist have used the CNG
autorickshaw to maximise the impact and we have so far not been able to find the
number plate of the vehicle," said a police officer.
Eyewitnesses
claim that explosives were loaded on a bicycle near Prince Pan Centre in GK I
and another inside a dustbin near McDonald's. All the blasts were of low
intensity and ball bearings were used to maximize the impact, said
investigators.
In GK's M block market, the blast took place next to
a Maruti car to maximise the impact but it did not explode averting a bigger
tragedy. Cops said that a low intensity blast with a timer was used to trigger
the blast. The second blast which took place next to a pan shop was higher
intensity but shopkeepers and shoppers had evacuated the area by then, reducing
the human loss. All the blast sites were popular shopping destinations, and all
of them were teeming with people on weekend shopping.
Three
unexploded bombs were found later taking the total number of bombs to 8. The
first was found near India Gate inside a dustbin at the Children's Park and one
was defused at Regal Cinema Hall which was lying on the road, while another one
was found at Central Park, again inside a dustbin. A National Security Guard
(NSG) team defused the bombs after they were informed by the witnesses about
unclaimed objects. NSG experts were assessing the situation and nature of
explosives used.