Eyewitness: ‘I could be dead’ Jaipur deals with aftermath

India reels from bomb attacks in tourist city Matt Wade South Asia correspondent May 15, 2008

THE mega cities of Mumbai and Delhi are on high terrorist alert after about 80 people were killed by a serial-bomb attack in Jaipur, one of the India’s main tourist destinations.

Eight blasts were detonated within 12 minutes in the crowded laneways of the historic walled city of Jaipur on Tuesday, raising fears of a fresh wave of terrorist attacks in India. At least three children were among the dead and more than 200 people were injured. There were no reports of foreign casualties.

“We are in for a more violent phase of terrorism,” one senior intelligence official told the Hindustan Times.

It was the first terrorist attack in Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan, which attracts many foreign tourists because of its architectural heritage. One of the bombs was detonated near the 18th-century Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Wind, and another targeted the famed Johri Bazaar, crammed with jewellers. The death toll would have been higher had not three more bombs been defused.

Rajasthan’s director-general of police, A.S.Gill, said bombs had been planted in plastic bags and attached to nine new bicycles. These were then placed with the aim of causing “maximum damage”. Bicycles have been used in at least two other terrorist attacks India during the past two years.

There were no claims of responsibility, but authorities were quick to declare the “meticulously planned” attacks the work of terrorists. A junior minister for home affairs in the Indian Government, Sriprakash Jaiswal, said he suspected a “foreign hand” was involved – normally a reference to arch rival Pakistan.

However, the Pakistani Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, condemned the blasts.

Three groups – the Bangladesh Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Lashkar-e-Toiba – top the list of suspects.

Jaipur police have detained a dozen people for questioning in relation to the attacks. They have identified where the bicycles used in the attacks were bought and have a description of the buyer.

The attackers appeared to target Hindus, with two of the bombs placed near temples dedicated to the Hindu deity Hanuman. They were also timed to coincide with the weekly gathering of Hanuman devotees. The blasts also coincided with the 10th anniversary of India’s nuclear bomb tests which took place at Pokhran, also in Rajasthan.

Jaipur is the base for the Indian Premier League cricket team the Rajasthan Royals, which includes Australian stars Shane Warne and Shane Watson. The team was not in the city at the time of the attacks.

India’s last big bomb attack was in the central city of Hyderabad in August when two explosions in a restaurant killed 42 people.

A curfew has been imposed in the old city in Jaipur in western India after a series of bomb blasts killed 63 and left about 200 wounded.

Crowded markets

The curfew began at 0900 (0300 GMT) on Wednesday and is expected to last until the evening.

The bomb blast aftermath

The BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder in Jaipur says that the old city is completely deserted apart from journalists and policemen moving around.

People were milling on the streets and there was some traffic the morning after the blast. Police were seen asking people to leave the area and return home.

The bustling old city has been cordoned off by the police for investigation. Its shops will remain closed on Wednesday.

Police reinforcements have been deployed in the city to maintain order.

Security has been stepped up at airports and railway stations across the country, officials said.

Eight bombs went off in the heart of Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan state, starting at around 1915 local time (1345 GMT) on Tuesday.

Each came a few minutes apart and eyewitnesses spoke of panic and then a stampede in the crowded old walled city.

Television pictures showed scenes of twisted debris and pools of blood on the streets.

RECENT BOMB ATTACKS August 2007: Bombs in open-air auditorium and restaurant in Hyderabad kill more than 40 May 2007: Bomb in historic Hyderabad mosque kills 14 February 2007: Twin blasts on train travelling from Delhi to Pakistan kills at least 66 people near Panipat July 2006: More than 160 killed by seven bombs on train network in Mumbai March 2006: Bombs at Hindu temple and railway station in Varanasi kill 15 October 2005: Three blasts in Delhi kill 62 In pictures: After the bombings Papers see pattern to blasts

 

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,” one survivor, Mohammed Fareed, told the BBC. “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.”

Medical authorities have appealed for blood donations for the injured.

One bomb exploded close to Jaipur’s most famous landmark, the historic Hawa Mahal, or palace of winds.

Indian President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attacks and the prime minister appealed for calm.

Jaipur is an extremely popular stop on India’s primary tourist circuit known as “The Golden Triangle”, which takes in other historic sites of Rajasthan and the Taj Mahal in Uttar Pradesh state.

It is known as the Pink City, because of the colour of its forts, palaces and city walls.

On Tuesdays many devotees flock to a popular shrine in Jaipur’s old city.