Police detain suspects after 5 blasts in New Delhi

Police detain suspects after 5 blasts in New Delhi
International Herald Tribune, The Associated Press
Published: September 14, 2008
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NEW DELHI: Police officers carried out raids across New Delhi on Sunday, detaining several people believed to be connected to a series of explosions in the capital over the weekend that killed at least 21 people and wounded almost 100 others.

At least five explosions struck a park and several crowded shopping areas of New Delhi just after sundown Saturday, a busy time for weekend shopping. The Indian Mujahedin, an Islamic militant group, claimed responsibility for the bombings in an e-mail message sent to several Indian news organizations.

By Sunday the official death toll was 21, said Rajan Bhagat, a spokesman for the city police, and at least 97 others were reportedly wounded.

Media reports said that 10 people were detained in the raids Sunday, while Bhagat said that "several" people had been held.

"We have collected vital clues and we hope to crack the case soon," Bhagat said. He gave no further details on the identities of the suspects or where they had been captured.
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Police detain suspects after 5 blasts in New Delhi

The Indian police have announced little progress in the investigation of a series of bombings in the western city of Jaipur in May that killed 61 people, or of the blasts in July in the western state of Gujarat that killed at least 45. The Indian Mujahedin had also claimed responsibility for those attacks, after which the police carried out a series of raids but made no arrests.

The bombings in New Delhi on Saturday were the latest in a series of terrorist attacks in cities across the country apparently intended to sow panic, inflict civilian casualties and, according to Indian officials, inflame tensions between Hindus and Muslims.

Over the past three years, mosques and temples alike have been attacked.

"I can just say that these blasts have been planned by the enemies of the country, and they will be taught a lesson," Sriprakash Jaiswal, the junior home minister, told reporters at one of the blast sites Saturday.

Terrorist attacks have loomed large over the political scene, as national elections approach. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has criticized the coalition government led by the Congress Party for its inability to prevent bombings like those of Saturday.

Along with inflation, which has risen sharply in recent months, the attacks are a major point of vulnerability for the incumbent administration. There have been few arrests related to the attacks.

The first of the Saturday blasts went off shortly after 6 p.m. in a market in the Karol Bagh neighborhood, where explosives were apparently stuffed in a three-wheeled rickshaw, the police said.

Next was an explosion in a public trash can outside a busy subway station near Connaught Place, followed by one in Central Park, a popular, recently renovated patch of green in the heart of Connaught Place.

Manoj Kumar, who works for a telephone company, was walking across Central Park on his way home from work when he heard a loud explosion and saw nearly a dozen wounded stumble and fall. A woman's hand was blown off, he said.

Chanchal Kumar was driving along that road when he saw the wounded sitting on a sidewalk. He ferried them to the nearest hospital, seven in all, over two trips. By the end of the ordeal, he said, his clothes were bloodstained.

The police said at least two unexploded bombs were found in and around the same area. Two other blasts followed in a market in a South Delhi neighborhood.

Almost three years ago, a series of blasts hit open-air bazaars here, killing more than 60. At the time, local police officials said a Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, was responsible for the attacks.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/14/asia/india.php