Blasts Cast Cloud Over India's Diwali Festivities

[Guest guest]

NEW DELHI (TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2005): The traditionally vibrant

Diwali celebrations here were subdued Tuesday, as many residents

stayed away from markets and public places across the city in the

wake of the weekend terror bombings.

 

The leader of the ruling Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, said she

would celebrate the Hindu festival of light as a mark of respect for

the 62 people killed in blasts Saturday and for the thousands who

died in the Kashmir earthquake Oct. 8. The prime minister's office

said it would be a "quiet day" for Manmohan Singh.

 

Tight security damped the festive spirit on what is one of the

India's biggest holidays; many worshippers were frisked as they

entered temples for prayers.

 

"The bombs have made a huge difference," Dinesh Gupta, a shopkeeper

at the central Bengali market told The Associated Press,

adding, "People are feeling very low. They don't want to celebrate

Diwali they way they normally do."

 

The deputy home minister, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, said the police had

uncovered "important clues" in the bombings that targeted two

markets and a bus. Detectives were looking into the claims of one

stallholder at the Paharganj market who said that shortly before the

explosion occurred, he overheard a man telling a bicycle rickshaw

driver that he would get out and walk because the traffic was so

thick.

 

"It's very crowded ahead, I'll just get off and walk, you take the

rickshaw until that stall," the suspected bomber told the rickshaw

puller, according to the shopkeeper's account. The bag exploded

moments later, killing the rickshaw's owner, 35-year-old Sadanand

Paswan, and many bystanders.

 

A more detailed description of the suspected bus bomber has been

circulated by police after interviewing passengers. Detectives said

they were looking for a casually dressed, unshaven man in his 20s

seen by eyewitnesses leaving the bus shortly before the bag he left

behind exploded.

 

Karnail Singh, the head of New Delhi's antiterrorism unit, said the

bombers had deliberately targeted snack food stalls in the two

markets because "they are generally crowded with women and children.

The target was maximum damage."

 

The New Delhi police were working with colleagues in Jammu and

Kashmir to get more information about the little-known Kashmiri

group, Islamic Inquilab Mahaz, which claimed responsibility for the

blasts Sunday, but there was still no confirmation that this group

was really behind the attack.

 

There was still no official statement on who might be responsible,

but in a telephone call late Monday to the Pakistani president,

General Pervez Musharraf, Singh said there were foreign links to the

bombings - a comment understood to be a veiled reference to Pakistan-

based militants.

 

"We continue to be disturbed and dismayed at indications of the

external linkages of terrorist groups with the Oct. 29 bombing,"

Singh told Musharraf.

 

"India expects Pakistan to act against terrorism directed at India,"

a foreign office spokesman quoted Singh as telling Musharraf. The

spokesman added: "The prime minister again drew the president's

attention to Pakistan's commitment to ending cross-border terrorism."

 

Musharraf had telephoned Singh to denounce the attack and to offer

his condolences. In a press conference earlier, he had condemned

terrorism and promised his full cooperation with the Indian

investigation.

 

Amid concern that the explosions might have a negative impact on the

peace talks between India and Pakistan, Jaiswal, deputy home

minister, stressed that the blasts would not be allowed to interfere

with continuing negotiations.

 

"The Delhi serial blasts will have no effect on the ongoing peace

process between India and Pakistan," he said Tuesday. "There are

some terrorist organizations who do not want relations between the

two countries to improve, but they will not succeed in their

designs."

 

SOURCE: International Herald Tribune, Blasts cast cloud over India's

Diwali festivities, by Amelia Gentleman

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2005

URL: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/01/news/india.t.php