45 dead as blasts rock Indian city
JAIPUR, India (AP) - May 13, 2008 The six explosions in Jaipur took place in markets and several
other areas of the city in Rajasthan, a region dotted with palaces
and temples that draws hundreds of thousands of Indian and foreign
tourists every year, said A.S. Gill, the state's police chief. A
seventh bomb was defused before it exploded, he said.
"Obviously, it's a terrorist plot," he told reporters. "The
way it has been done, the attempt was to cause the maximum damage
to human life."
He added bicycles may have been used in the bombings. But he did
not say if the explosives were detonated by suicide bombers riding
through the crowds or if the bombs had simply been planted on
parked bicycles.
N.S. Shekhawat, the superintendent of the Sawai Man Singh
hospital in Jaipur, where most of the bodies were taken, said at
least 45 people were killed. Another 100 people were wounded,
police said.
Shortly after the bombings, which began just before 7:30 p.m.,
authorities put New Delhi, India's capital, and Mumbai, the
country's financial center, on high alert along with several other
cities.
Security was also quickly stepped up at airports and railway
stations across the country, said India's junior home minister,
Sriprakash Jaiswal.
One of the blasts in Jaipur hit a market near a temple dedicated
to the Hindu monkey god Hanuman, according to police. Tuesday is
the day of worship set aside for Hanuman, and the temple was packed
with people offering prayers on the way home from work.
The Press Trust of India news agency said another blast took
place near the Johari Bazaar - the city's jewelry market, a popular
destination for tourists. The tourist season, however, ended in
March and there were no immediate indications that foreigners had
been caught in the explosions.
Parikshit Bhandari, who saw the attack near the jewelry market,
said there was "blood all around and wounded people crawling on
the ground."
Television channels showed footage of mangled bicycles, damaged
cars and overturned bicycle rickshaws, the most popular mode of
transport in the crowded lanes of Jaipur.
A spate of bombings have plagued India since 2005. Last year,
two explosions killed 43 people in the southern city of Hyderabad;
seven bombings along Mumbai's commuter rail network killed nearly
200 people in July 2006, and three New Delhi markets were bombed in
October 2005, killing 62 people.
There have also been a number of smaller explosions, and India
has repeatedly blamed the attacks on Islamic militant groups backed
by neighbor and rival Pakistan - an allegation Islamabad routinely
denies.
While Indian officials had not yet openly blamed Pakistan-based
militants for Tuesday's attack, Jaiswal, the junior home minister,
suggested the bombings were connected to previous explosions.
"The blasts are part of a big conspiracy," he told reporters.
Indian President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh both condemned the attacks, as did U.S. Ambassador David
Mulford.
"There can be no possible justification for murderous attacks
on innocent people," Mulford said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Tuesday
that "given the facts that we know now, quite clearly these bombs
were intended to claim innocent life, and it's something that we
very clearly condemn."
McCormack had no details on who was responsible or who the
victims were.