Holy city bombings death toll reaches 20
Security forces were deployed to holy sites across India today after terror bombings killed 20 people in Hinduism’s holiest city, sparking anger among its residents and concerns of possible widespread sectarian violence.
A mob of angry Hindus briefly blocked the motorcade of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, when he visited the scene of yesterday’s bombings at a crowded railway station and temple in the northern city of Varanasi on the holy Ganges River.
Yadav, whose party champions the cause of Muslims and lower-caste Hindus, inspected the site under heavy protection while slogans against him rang out.
Varanasi, meanwhile, was largely shut down by a strike called by Hindu nationalist groups to protest against the bombings. Markets were closed and vehicles kept off the roads. Authorities also ordered that schools be closed because of the strike call.
But there was no sign of wider violence in reaction to the attack.
“There is peace now but what happened yesterday is horrible,” said Jugal Kishore Chaurasiya, a local grocer. “There is fear but I am proud that even after this act of terrorism there has been amity between the two sides. We are trying to maintain peace.”
Cities across India were on high alert after the bombings, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for calm.
“It is a terrorist attack. It has all the characteristics of a terrorist attack,” said Principal Secretary Alok Sinha, the state’s top home ministry official. “We are not sure about the group involved. The (anti-terrorist) Special Task Force has started investigations into the matter.”
Soldiers and police were sent to guard prominent religious pilgrimage spots across this country of 1.02 billion people, which is about 84 per cent Hindu but which also has a sizeable Muslim minority and millions of followers of many other religions.
Five people died overnight in hospitals, adding to the 15 people killed yesterday evening in the series of co-ordinated bombings in the northern city on the banks of the holy Ganges River in Uttar Pradesh state, local Superintendent of Police Paresh Pandey said.
Pandey said 58 people were still being treated in different hospitals, 35 of them in serious condition.
Yadav said “stern action will be initiated against all those found involved”.
The attacks came only days after Hindus and Muslims fought street battles in two neighbourhoods in Lucknow, leaving four people dead, during a visit to India by US President George Bush.
The next day, angry Hindus looted Muslim shops and burned vehicles in the coastal resort of Goa in a dispute over a mosque demolition.
At least two blasts went off yesterday evening at Varanasi’s train station, and another blast shook a temple on the banks of the Ganges, where millions of pilgrims gather annually for ritual bathing and prayers. Police said they found other, unexploded bombs elsewhere in the city.
Yashpal Singh, the Uttar Pradesh police chief, said the attackers had targeted the temple on a Tuesday, when special prayers were held, to cause maximum damage.
“The bomb was placed near a tree where women usually sit and take rest,” Singh said.
“Moreover, a wedding was just over when the blast took place. Had the blast taken place a few minutes earlier, the toll could have been more.”
“Similarly, in the railway station the bomb was placed near the station master’s office to cause maximum damage,” he said.
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