CAPITAL IN SHAMBLES
It was a sense of déjà vu for Delhites, but a horrendous one as five bombs ripped through busy shopping areas of India’s capital within minutes of each other, killing at least 30 people.
The modus operandi of most of the blasts — orchestrated in public spaces, especially market places — indicates that there is a covert plan to strike at the root of India’s economy.
The explosions, which also injured about 90 people, are not thought to have been very powerful but happened in crowded areas. Four unexploded bombs were also found and defused.
More than 400 people have died since October 2005 in bomb attacks on Indian cities such as Ahmedabad and Bangalore. CNN-IBN, a TV news channel, said it had received an e-mail before the blasts from a group calling itself the “Indian Mujahideen”. “Do whatever you can. Stop us if you can,” the e-mail reportedly said. Now that is called `in your face’ terror!!
For at least an hour after the blasts, phone lines were jammed and traffic slowed to a crawl as people rushed home to safety. WhileTwo bombs were planted in dustbins metres away from each other in the central shopping district of Connaught Place and police believe that at least three other devices were planted at busy markets in the Karol Bagh area, on the Barakhamba Road and in the Greater Kailash area.
Although this is not the first time that Delhi has been targeted by Islamic terrorist organizations during the festive season (on Oct. 29, 2005, 68 shoppers were killed on pre-Diwali and pre-Id bombings in Delhi) the intensity and the meticulous precision with which the blasts were carried out perhaps proves one thing: that most major cities in India, even high security zones such as Delhi, are not safe from terror strikes.
These blasts Saturday’s serial explosions in the national capital, Delhi and the subsequent developments are another reminder of the unpreparedness of the political class to tackle the menace of terrorism head-on. They are the fourth major terrorist strike in the country in the last six months, and come close on the heels of the Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts.
Perhaps it is time for the think tanks in the country to wake up and realize that the police force has to be made more efficient to tackle terrorism and insurgency in the country, and that it cannot be done with the army or paramilitary and at the cost of the human rights of ordinary and innocent residents of the country. But the question which needs to be answered is that whether it is terror or vendetta or a deadly combination of both?
While Delhi and Mumbai have been placed on high alert, there is still a palpable sense of panic in the capital. A chronology of the bombings this year will reveal that the nature of most of the blasts was similar. The first occurred on May 13, in Jaipur, where almost 70 people died. On July 25, nine blasts in Bangalore, India’s IT city, killed 2 people and injured 20 others. On July 26 in Ahmedabad, 56 people were killed and 200 injured. For Delhi on Sept. 13, so far 21 people (15 men, 6 women) are officially confirmed as dead and 72 more are battling for their lives in the hospital. The group claiming responsibility, the Indian Mujahideen, is suspected to be an amalgamation of home-grown and Pakistan-based terror outfits that profess to seek revenge for the purported injustices and atrocities against the country’s Muslim minority. In addition to the Ahmedabad and Bangalore blasts, Indian Mujahideen has claimed to have been behind blasts in the northwestern city of Jaipur in May, as well as serial blasts the northern cities of Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow in November 2007.
Sumi and Saurabh Verma
Reader's Comments