Serial Blasts In Delhi

This was a nightmare come true for security experts who had been dreading the culmination of what was being called OperationB-A-D: after Bangalore and Ahmedabad, Delhiwas feared to be the obvious next target. This was not just speculation, but hadbeen claimed by the Gujarat police and IB on the basis of their decodingof an intercepted call, made allegedly from Sabarmati jail in Gujarat toPakistan, soon after the Ahmedabad blasts in July.

But, after Independence Day passed off peacefully, there had been a palpablesense of relief and then to a sense of complacency as each passing day brought agradual slackening of the heightenedsecurity. That lull was to be shattered rudely as the national capital was caught unawareswhen terror struck on September 13 evening, targetting three crowded market areas -- Karol Bagh, Connaught Place and Greater Kailash --in five synchronised blasts in rapid succession leaving at least 20 dead andsome 80 injured ahead of the festive season.

While figures differ in different accounts, collation from different sources indicate thatclose to 80 people were admitted to various hospitals.As is often the case in such instances, unfortunately, the toll is likely to be muchworse once the reports from various hospitals aretallied and confirmed as many of the injured are said to be in serious condition.

The first to be hit was Ghaffar Market, bringing back memories of the pre-Diwali terror strike in Sarojini Nagar market in 2005 thathad left 68 dead.It was around 10 minutes after six in the evening, the market bustling with Saturday eveningshoppers when an explosion ripped through a street jammed with clothing shops and stores that sell cheapsmuggled goods in the well-known market for foreign goods in Karol Bagh in Central Delhi. The explosive was kept near a Maruti car and the impact of the blast was so severe that a three-wheeler autorickshaw was thrown up several feet in theair, getting caught up in the electrical wires overhead. All that remained oncethe crowd dispersed, and the dead and injured removed, was a mangled rickshaw in front of the small shop where the bomb exploded.

The blasts at Ghaffar Market were followed within the next 30 minutes by two blasts in Connaught Place area-- near a Metro entrance on Barakhamba Road, lined by foreign banks and multinational offices, near Gopal Das Bhavan and the other at CentralPark. 

But that was not to be the end of the terror cycle. Soon after the blasts inConnaught Place area, there were two blasts in M-Block market in Greater Kailash I in SouthDelhi -- first one near McDonald's and, minutes later, near Prince Pan Corner in the same market. 

The explosives were planted in dustbins in Connaught place area while in Greater Kailash one was in dustbin and another on a bicycle.

Police said that at least 16 people were killed in the Ghaffar market blast.At least four lives were lost in the twin explosions in Connaught placearea. No one was killed in Greater Kailash I where, immediately after the first, low-intensity blast,alert market authorities stepped in and asked people over the public address system to hide inside the shops or gather in an openpark nearby. The next blast,though stronger in intensity, only injured two persons.

Clearly, the toll would have been much higher had the terrorists succeededin all their plans to cause death and destruction insome of Delhi's most high-profile areas.  One live bomb was recoveredfrom the crowded India Gate area, another was found from a dustbin at Regal cinema in ConnaughtPlace and a third live bomb was found in Connaught Place's Central Park. Explosive experts of National Security Guard rushed to the sitesto defuse the bombs.

'Indian Mujahideen'

As was the case in UP, Jaipur and Ahmedabad, this time too there was an email from 'Indian Mujahideen', believed to be afront organisation of banned SIMI and Lashker-e-Taiba, claiming responsibility for the blasts through an e-mail sent to news organisations around the same time when the explosionsoccurred. Some of the bombs were kept in garbage bins. The e-mail was traced to an Internet Protocol address in Chembur in Mumbai.claiming responsibility for the serial blasts."Indian Mujahideen strikes back once more. Within 5 minutes from now... This time with the Message of Death, dreadfully terrorising you for yoursins. And thus our promise will be fulfilled. Inshallah...Do whatever you want and stop us if you can," the mail which camepurportedly from'Arbi Hindi', with the e-mail ID of al_arbi_delhi@yahoo.com, said.

The mail has been traced to an Internet Protocol address registered in the name of Messrs Kamran Power Control Private Limited inChembur, Mumbai. But this too, the police suspect, is likely to be a case of ahacked wi-fi account, as had been the case in the previous email traced to anAmerican national's wi-fi after the Ahmedabad blasts.

Preliminary examination of the blast site revealed that low intensity ammonium nitrate tied to integrated circuit had been used in almost all the serial blasts in the national capital.

These blasts come in the wake of the serial blasts in Jaipur in May,in which 65 people were killed, and the explosions in Ahmedabad in July that left 49 dead. There had also been low-intensity serial blasts in Bangalore in which two people were killed, a day beforethe Ahmedabad blasts.

High Alert

There was chaos on the roads as people rushed back home. Mobile lines were jammed as frantic families — many from outside Delhi — tried to contact loved ones. The police set up a helpline, 011-23490312, for information about victims.

All the major markets in the Capital were shut as a precautionary measure shortly after the blasts.

As is routine after the event, a nation-wide alert has been sounded and securitytightened across the national capital with police personnel fanning out in largenumbers to railway and Metro stations, hospitals, bus terminals and airports.

Gun-toting security personnel have been deployed at sensitive points. Barricadeswere put up at several places to regulate traffic. There was chaos on the roadsas people who were outside rushed back home following the blasts.

Several major city markets, including the popular Sarojini Nagar Market whichwas targeted in the previous Diwali-eve blasts in 2006, were shut down andevacuated.

Mobile services which had remained jammed in Connaught Place and Ghaffar Market area,soon after the blasts, have come back to a semblance of normalcy. Extra personnel have been deployed atreligious places, besides keeping an extra vigil on the borders.

Police have asked cyber cafe owners and dealers to be on alert and keep a tabon their customers.

Sinister Saturday
In an uncanny coincidence, the two major blasts which rocked Delhi in the last three years and the recent blast in Ahmedabad took place on Saturday evenings.The serial blasts of October 29, 2005, was also incidentally a Saturday evening.The serial blasts in Ahmedabad on  July 26.also occurred on yet another Saturday evening this year. 

There is more such statistical coincidences for those inclined to follow suchthings. This is the second blast this year that has taken place on 13th day of a month. The earlier one took place on May 13 inJaipur.