NEW DELHI, 30 October 2005 — Festival shopping turned to tragedy yesterday as bombs went off in busy New Delhi markets and a bus, killing at least 58 people and wounding over 150. Terrorists targeted markets full of shoppers ahead of the Hindu festival of Diwali and Muslim Eid Al-Fitr in central Delhi’s Pahargunj and south Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar districts. There was also a bomb explosion on a bus in the industrial area of Govindpuri in south Delhi. A tragedy was averted in Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi, where police explosives experts defused a bomb.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged people to remain calm and said in a statement that “India will win the battle against terrorism.” The statement — read on CNN by one of his top advisers, Sanjaya Baru — said the explosions were the work of terrorists, but did not say who the government thought was behind them.
Manmohan was visiting the insurgency-hit northeastern Indian state of Tripura and would immediately return to the capital, Baru said.
Sonia Gandhi, head of Manmohan’s ruling Congress party, condemned the attack and said the nation will counter terrorism. “Terrorism is a menace which we all have to face and fight,” she said.
“This is a phenomenon which the whole world is facing and all of us together will have to fight it with all our might,” said Sonia, whose husband Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a female suicide bomber in 1991.
Her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 by two Sikh policemen.
Indian President Abdul Kalam also condemned the blasts and extended his condolences to families of those killed.
Police declared a state of emergency and all the markets in the city were ordered closed.
“I appeal to you. Please disperse from the markets and go back to your families,” Home Minister Shivraj Patil said in a televised address.
Patil said 39 people were killed in the blast in the Sarojini Nagar market. Jagtar Singh, a spokesman for the Delhi fire department, said 16 people were killed in the first blast around 5.45 p.m. in the crowded central neighborhood of Pahargunj, and three were killed on the bus in the Govindpuri neighborhood. He had no further details.
At least 60 people were injured in just one of the three blasts, in the Pahargunj neighborhood, according to a policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
All three bombs exploded between 5.45 p.m. and 5.50 p.m. While in Pahargunj, the bomb was placed in a motorcycle parked in front of a shop in the Cheh Tuti area, a bomb was placed in a gas cylinder in Sarojini Nagar.
“There was a huge sound,” said Sunita, who lives in Pahargunj, an area popular 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.”
“It appeared as if 10 bombs had gone off together,” said Sachinder Pal Singha at the Sarojini Nagar market, where blazes continued to burn their way through devastated shops and alleyways.
“People were running in panic,” he said. “I threw shawls on top of people because they were on fire.”
Police detained 10 men for questioning. “We have picked up three people from the New Delhi railway station and seven from different raids elsewhere in the city,” a police spokesman said, adding that those held were all male.
No group claimed responsibility by late last night.
Pakistan strongly condemned the bombings as a “criminal act of terrorism.” “Pakistan strongly condemns the terrorist attacks in New Delhi, which have resulted in the loss of a number of innocent lives,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.
“The attack in a crowded market place is a criminal act of terrorism,” it said. “The people and government of Pakistan are shocked at this barbaric act and express deep sympathy with the families of the victims.” Islamabad also called for a thorough investigation to punish the culprits. “We hope that a thorough investigation will be carried out and the perpetrators of this act of terrorism will be brought to justice.”
— Additional input from Azhar Masood
