NEW DELHI/VARANASI, 10 March 2006 — The ancient city of Varanasi showcased its standing as one of the country’s most vibrant tourist centers yesterday, two days after bomb blasts killed 23 people and triggered protests.
Markets across the city opened, streets bustled with traffic and tourists, Indian and foreign, returned to the ancient bathing ghats and temples by the Ganges River a day after Hindu groups shut the city in protests.
Lashkar-e-Qahar, a little-known Kashmiri militant group, called a local news agency in Kashmir and claimed responsibility for the explosions.
“We have carried out the attacks. If India does not stop excesses in Kashmir, we will carry out more such attacks across India,” Abdullah Jabbar, the group’s spokesman, said by telephone.
Police in Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar said they had never heard of the group but were taking the claim seriously and had begun an investigation.
Security experts said the group was likely a front for Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is also on top of the police list of suspects.
Police said they would continue to mount vigils to prevent a communal backlash although, they added, that appeared unlikely. “Violence occurs when there is anger,” said Mahendra Tanna, a Varanasi businessman. “The blasts at the temple did not anger us but made us sad. Which is why there have been no riots.
“How can we associate all this with Muslims? All Muslims are not bad and all Hindus are not good,” said Tanna, a Hindu.
The first bomb went off in the packed, Sankat Mochan temple where hundreds of Hindus had gathered for prayers and three weddings.
Another bomb then exploded at the city’s main railway station. Police said both bombs were home-made devices placed in pressure cookers and connected to timers.
Police released sketches yesterday of two male suspects in their twenties. They said the suspects were believed to be of Kashmiri origin and had planted a bomb at a store which failed to explode.
“From eyewitness accounts, we think up to five people were behind the attacks and we’re trying to ascertain the involvement of a woman terrorist,” police chief Navneet Sikera said.
“From their looks and physique they seemed to be Kashmiris and were in their late twenties according to the shopkeeper. They were speaking Hindi with some difficulty,” Sikera said.
He said the entire operation in the city may have involved four or five men.
“We have a lot of information. We may take some time but we will be successful. We will find out who was behind this and what their aim was,” Sikera said.
Analysts and intelligence officers said that although the Hindu community was targeted by suspected militants, they did not expect trouble because most Indians were weary of violence and increasingly resilient.
Besides, political groups had largely refrained from stoking tensions and Varanasi’s Muslims had condemned the blasts and joined Hindus in the general strike on Wednesday, avoiding a confrontation, they said.
“We are grateful to the people that they have not allowed this situation to take a communal turn,” said Yashpal Singh, police chief of Uttar Pradesh state. “It is thanks also to the political parties as none of them tried to give this political color,” Singh said.
A Lashkar militant killed by police in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh’s capital, hours after the blasts was likely linked to the attack, investigators said.
“We are zeroing in on a Lashkar hand and there definitely seems to have been a link between the terrorist killed in Lucknow and the bombs here,” said Sikera.
Abhay Pratap Singh, who owns a hotel, said the city was calm despite the blasts also because the bombs did not damage the temple. — Additional input from agencies.
