Jaipur deals with blast aftermath

[Juanito]

By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Jaipur

The blood-splattered remains of Tuesday's serial bomb explosions in Jaipur are being cleared away.

Eight blasts, within minutes of each other, sent shock waves across the city.

The first at around 1915 at Badi Chaupad, or the Big Square, did not kill anyone. The bomb was kept near the road, there were not too many people around, police say.

But minutes later, another explosion just across the street, caused mayhem.

Brightly coloured glass bangles, some broken, others intact, are piled here in a corner.

Cardboard boxes, paper and plastic bags are littered everywhere.

An abandoned shoe an indication of what happened here a few hours ago.

There was complete panic, people started running away. I too ran home after that. I told my children to get inside the house.
Rama Shankar
Eyewitness

All other explosions also targeted markets packed with shoppers and temples teeming with devotees.

Everywhere, the explosives were kept in bags which were hung on to bicycles.

In Bapu Bazaar, outside the temple of the monkey god, Hanuman, forensic experts are examining the mangled remains of a cycle.

"Look, the tyres are still clean. They have no mud. It shows the cycle was new," Constable Bahadur Singh points out.

Police say all the bikes used in the blasts were brand new, probably purchased for the purpose of carrying out the attacks.

Stall went flying

Less than 10 feet away from the temple stands a gleaming new motorbike.

"It belonged to Constable Shahnawaz. He was on duty in front of the temple. He was among those killed in the blast," says police officer Pushpendra Singh.

A few hundred metres away in the Jauhari Market, another explosion took place next to a vendor selling snacks.

It sent his makeshift stall flying.

Littered on the roadside are boiled potatoes, slices of bread, chick peas, a packet of Amul butter and paper plates.

A red car parked nearby has multiple shrapnel holes and there are blood stains all around.

The flower market in Chhoti Chaupad or the Small Square - the scene of another blast - has been washed clean.

"I was sitting nearby, enjoying the cool air near the fountain, when I heard a huge blast. It was deafening. And then there was fire," says Rama Shankar, an eyewitness.

"People were running with buckets of water, trying to put out the fire. And then we heard two more loud bangs.

"There was complete panic. People started running away. I too ran home after that. I told my children to get inside the house. It was frightening."

Mr Shankar says he escaped because he was lucky. But many others were not.

Rain of shrapnel

At the Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur, several dozen injured people are lying in the trauma ward.

Mohammad Fareed had just alighted from a rickshaw when he was hit by a rain of shrapnel in Badi Chaupad near the bangle-seller.

"It was like lightning hit me," he says. "And then I was lying down by the road side.

"People were running around, shouting 'blast, blast'. Some people helped me and then the police arrived and brought me to the hospital."

Fareed has a fractured arm and the bandage covering it is soaked in blood.

He has shrapnel wounds in the chest from where a pipe drains out blood into a plastic bottle.

At the hospital, 500 to 600 doctors, nurses and paramedics have spent the night tending to casualties.

"We have counted 55 bodies, almost all of them were brought dead to the hospital," says Dr Narpat Singh Shekhawat, the hospital superintendent.

"An equal number have been operated upon and they are recovering in the hospital," he says.

Regaining consciousness

Among them is 22-year-old Hanuman. He has been operated for injuries in his abdomen and a tube is attached to his nose.

He has just regained consciousness.

"I had gone to the Hanuman temple to pray. Tuesdays are special days when you worship Lord Hanuman.

"I was standing in the back, hands folded, praying. When the blast happened, I fell down. I have no idea what happened after that. Some people brought me to the hospital," he says.

Standing by his bedside, his uncle Madan Lal looks worried.

"This is the first time he has regained consciousness. We heard about the blasts from television.

"We knew he went to Hanuman temple on Tuesdays so we started looking for him. The blasts took place around 7.30 in the evening, we found him only at two in the morning.

"We hope he recovers soon."

Hanuman is weak and it will take time before he recovers.

Some here say the wounded psyche of this thriving city will take a lot longer to heal.

Story from BBC NEWS:

[Sourav]

Very sad story ... thanks for sharing JP.

Update: Found an interesting article from the australian news.com

Jaipur, India terror blasts kill 80

By: Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | May 15, 2008



RELATIONS between India and Pakistan plunged into crisis last night after a terrorist bloodbath in the historic "Pink City" of Jaipur, with New Delhi's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee under pressure to abandon a crucial visit to Islamabad next week for peace talks.

A series of bomb blasts across the ancient city of Jaipur killed at least 80 people and turned busy markets, a jewellery bazaar and a Hindu temple into sites of carnage.

Following the attacks, India's Intelligence Bureau last night warned of plans for an assassination attempt against Mr Mukherjee launched by "jihadi elements having the backing of the ISI" - Pakistan's spy agency.

Reports said a warning of a possible attempt to kill Mr Mukherjee was sent by Indian intelligence to the Home Ministry a few days ago.

A security alert has been sounded in cities across India following the Jaipur attacks and last night foreign tourists visiting the city were reported to be fleeing.

In the past four years, India has lost almost 4000 lives in terrorist attacks - mostly blamed on jihadi militants based in Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Last night, senior Indian police commander Kuldip Khoda said: "The roots of all these acts of terror are in Pakistan, whether the incidents are in Samba (Kashmir) or serial blasts in Jaipur."

Serious concern was also expressed for the safety of the Indian Premier League Rajasthan Royals cricket team, captained by Shane Warne, which is based at the Sawai Man Singh ground in Jaipur, about 3km from the site of the attacks.

Warne, fellow Australian Shane Watson and other members of the highly successful team were on five days' leave when the blasts occurred and are not due to play their next fixture until Sunday. They are believed to have been in Goa, and last night there were suggestions that because of the security situation in Jaipur, Sunday's match may be moved to the southern city of Bangalore.

Mr Mukherjee's visit to Islamabad, if it goes ahead, is aimed at establishing the first bilateral contact with the new civilian government in Islamabad and trying to kick-start the long-stalled dialogue over Kashmir and terrorism.

But as a security alert was sounded in major cities across India - and with the so-called "needle of suspicion" over the Jaipur carnage pointing at Pakistan-based terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba and surrogates linked to al-Qa'ida, - it appears Mr Mukherjee may be forced to cancel his trip.

The Mumbai train bomb blasts of two years ago, which killed 200 people, were also blamed on terrorists based in Pakistan and supported by Pakistan's ubiquitous "intelligence" agencies. The Mumbai attacks sent bilateral relations into a deep freeze from which they took months to recover, with senior Indian ministers refusing to travel to Islamabad.

There is widespread outrage over the synchronised attacks in which more than 80 people were killed and 150 injured within the teeming walled city of Jaipur.

Last night, officials in the Pakistan capital condemned the blasts and insisted the country had nothing to do with them.

The seven bombs packed with lethal ball bearings and strapped to bicycles went off close to at least five Hindu temples within 20 minutes of each other.

In recent months, terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba has advocated jihad aimed at "liberating Muslim-dominated areas of India".

In this it has been echoing calls attributed to Osama bin Laden, who has made it clear he sees Hinduism as being an enemy equivalent to Zionism.
_________________
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[Sandeep Sharma]

GHAZIABAD: The owner of a cyber café, from where an email claiming responsibility for the Jaipur blasts was sent, has been detained by the police on Thursday.

Police officials said Madhukar Mishra, the owner of Naveen Computer Jobs, a cyber cafe in Sahibabad area of Ghaziabad right on the border with the national capital, has been detained for questioning.

An email by a group claiming responsibility for Tuesday's serial bomb blasts in Jaipur was sent from this cyber cafe, said the police.

The outfit, which also emailed videos of a cycle strapped with a bag it claimed held the bomb, reportedly called itself Indian Mujahideen.

On Tuesday evening, eight bombs went off within 15 minutes in a one-kilometre stretch in Jaipur. Sixty-three people died in the heinous bombings and over 200 were injured.

The ID used for sending the e-mail about the blasts, "guru_al_hindi_jaipur@yahoo.co.uk", is similar to "guru_alhindi@yahoo.fr" from which some television channels had received an email minutes before blasts rocked the holy city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on November 23, 2007. A total of five blasts in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi had claimed 13 lives and left 80 wounded.
_________________
Brgds,
Sandeep

[Sourav]

They have released a sketch of the person who sent the mail, Sandeep, and a couple more.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


A Chronology of some recent major bomb blasts in the country:

January 2008: Terrorist attack on CRPF camp in Rampur kills eight.

October 2007: 2 killed in a blast inside Ajmer Sharif shrine during Ramadan, in Rajasthan.

August 2007: 30 dead, 60 hurt in Hyderabad 'terror' strike.

May 2007: A bomb at Mecca mosque in Hyderabad kills 11 people.

February 19, 2007: Two bombs explode aboard a train bound from India to Pakistan, burning to death at least 66 passengers, most of them Pakistanis.

September 2006: 30 dead and 100 hurt in twin blasts at a mosque in Malegaon.

July 2006: Seven bombs on Mumbai's trains kill over 200 and injure 700 others.

March 2006: Twin bombings at a train station and a temple in Varanasi kill 20 people.

October 2005: Three bombs placed in busy New Delhi markets a day before Diwali kill 62 people and injure hundreds.
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[pankaj.patpatia]

AT LEAST 80 people were killed and over 150 injured in seven explosions that took place on Tuesday evening in some of the most crowded areas of Jaipur. The eighth bomb was found and defused.

"We have information that 80 people have died," Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria was quoted by AFP as saying. Earlier, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje told reporters that 60 people had died and 150 were injured.

State police chief A.S. Gill said, "Obviously it's a terrorist plot. The way it has , been done, the attempt was to cause maximum damage." He did not rule out the use of RDX and timer devices.

Though no one has claimed responsibility yet, security and intelligence sources said the explosions could be the handiwork of the Bangladesh-based Harkat ul Jehadi Islamia or the Pakistan-based Lashkar-i-Tayyeba.

The home minister said one suspect had been detained and was being investigated.

This was Rajasthan's second brush with terrorism in recent years - the last being a bomb blast at the Ajmer Sharif dargah of Moinuddin Chisti on October 11, 2007 that killed three devotees.

The Tuesday terrorist strike in Jaipur started at 7.25 pm. There were seven explosions at six places - Manak Chowk, Sanganeri Gate Hanuman Mandir, Johri Bazaar, Tripoliya, Chauti Chaupar (two explosions) and Chandpole Hanuman Mandir. Police said another bomb was defused at Chandpole Hanuman temple.

The temples were chosen obviously because Tuesdays are special for Hanuman worship, and the explosions would have the maximum impact.

The bombs were carried on bicycles or perhaps cars - to the destinations before being exploded by the terrorists.

Flowers strewn in blood at Chauti Chaupar and police helmets scattered on the Kotwali police station porch told a gruesome tale. Two bombs had exploded in quick succession at Manak Chowk and Chauti Chaupar.

Many of the flower vendors at Chauti Chaupar were injured, as bombs exploded behind the cement platform on which they displayed their flowers. Soon a bomb exploded in the premises of the Kotwali police station across the road.

Ram Babu, an eyewitness, said, "It was the sound of something heavy dropping with a thud. When we turned back we saw the injured in the parking lot out side the police station."

Homemaker S. Dangayach, 42, witnessed the heart-rending death of two children. "I saw several people running in panic. I was unable to run... I was saved by the grace of God," she told HT at Sawai Mansingh Hospital.

At the Kotwali police station, three policemen were injured. Smashed helmets were scattered all over the place along with the mangled remains of vehicles.

Police evacuated the entire walled city within an hour of the blasts. Vehicles were prohibited from going in and people were asked to walk instead. Security officials said the cellphone network was jammed to prevent the spread of rumours.

Minutes after the evacuation, riot control vehicles, columns of rapid action force and special task force were deployed at different crossings inside the walled city turning it into a fortress.