South Asia News
60 dead as blasts rock India's Jaipur city (Roundup)
By DPA
May 13, 2008, 19:56 GMT

New Delhi - At least 60 people were killed and 150 injured as terrorists set off eight powerful bomb blasts in India's northern city of Jaipur on Tuesday, officials and news reports said.

The bombs went off in market places and outside a Hindu temple where a large number of devotees had gathered for prayers, the PTI news agency reported.

'According to the information I have received 60 people have died and 150 have been injured,' State Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje told the news agency.

Another bomb was defused by the police in an area in the city, capital of the north-western Rajasthan state, which is considered among the most popular tourist destinations in India.

Those injured were rushed to the local hospitals as the police said foreign tourists could be among the victims of the attacks. The city is located some 250 kilometres south west of national capital New Delhi.

India's junior home minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told the NDTV network that there was enough evidence to show that it was a terrorist attack and hinted that a foreign-based terrorist group was involved.

This is perhaps the worst terrorist strike in India after the Mumbai train blasts in July 2006 that killed 186 people.

According to the police, the blasts occurred in markets such as the Johari Bazar, Badi Choupal and Choti Choupal and near the Hanuman temple in the Tripolia Bazar area and Hawa Mahal, or the palace of winds, considered the most famous landmark in the city.

The carefully planned low-intensity explosions were suspected to have been set off from cycles and cars in the area and took place within a range of two kilometres in the old quarters of the city.

The bombs targeting five places were 'designed to create maximum impact', police officers said adding that all the explosions took place within 30 minutes starting at 7.15 pm local time.

The blasts triggered panic amongst the shoppers and worshippers as frightened people ran helter-skelter for safety.

Blood was splattered on the scene as the explosions tossed some of the mangled remains of the victims several feet away. The city plunged into fear as there were traffic jams on the streets and people rushed to their homes after the blasts.

'There was an deafening explosion near the shops and huge flames engulfed the area. There was total chaos and many people were crying and running for safety,' Lalit Khatri, a witness told the NDTV.

Information Officer of the Rajasthan Government, Rohit Singh said the fact that blasts took place near a Hindu place of worship, indicated that the attacks were aimed at triggering communal violence between Hindus and Muslims.

Meanwhile, Indian security agencies suspected the Muslim militant group Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia (HuJI) - which was behind an attack in the state last year which claimed two lives. However, no terrorist outfit claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The Federal Home Ministry sounded a nationwide alert following the serial blasts in Jaipur, the first major terrorist attack in India since serial blasts in the northern Uttar Pradesh state in November last year claimed 13 lives and injured 59 others.

Both Indian President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts and appealed to people to maintain communal harmony in the state.