Bombs Rock Hinduism's Holiest City --15 Killed, Dozens Injured

[Guest guest]

VARANASI, India (March 7, 2006)(AP) - A series of co-ordinated

bombings rocked a packed railway station and crowded temple Tuesday

in Hinduism's holiest city, killing at least 15 people and injuring

dozens in an attack that raised fears of communal violence.

 

Cities across India were put on high alert, and Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh appealed for calm.

 

"Stern action will be initiated against all those found involved,"

said Mulayam Singh Yadav, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the

state where Tuesday's blasts occurred.

 

The attacks came just days after Hindus and Muslims fought in the

streets of Lucknow, leaving four people dead, during a visit to

India by U.S. President George W. 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.

 

It was unclear who was behind Tuesday's bombings.

 

At least 10 people died in what appeared to be two bombings at

Varanasi's train station, and five others were killed in another

blast at the temple on the banks of the holy Ganges River, said Alok

Sinha, a senior state official. However, since the bodies were

counted at the mortuary, he could not be sure how many died in each

place.

 

Another senior official, Kamlesh Pathak, said two unexploded bombs -

one hidden in a pressure cooker and the other in a backpack - were

found at Varanasi's Godowalia Market and defused by police.

 

The Press Trust of India news agency, meanwhile, reported that

security officials found four unexploded bombs at a bathing platform

on the banks of the Ganges, a few kilometres away.

 

The blast at the Sankat Mochan temple went off near dusk, when the

shrine was crowded with worshippers making special Tuesday offerings

to the monkey-god Hanuman, said police Insp. Madan Mohan Pande.

 

At least 22 people were wounded in the temple blast, police official

Mohammed Hashmi said.

 

Television footage showed a man, his face bloodied, lying on a

stretcher. An old woman lay on the floor, holding up her arms to

helpers, who pulled her away. Debris, body parts and blood covered

the temple floor.

 

Most witness accounts of the blasts at the city's crowded railway

station said one bomb went off either in or next to a train car and

the other near the ticket counter in the waiting room.

 

At least 40 people were injured there, 22 of them seriously, Pathak

said.

 

One witness, Sunil Yadav, described a scene of confusion, with

people running and screaming.

 

"It was a high-intensity blast," a man identified only as Pradeep

told the CNN-IBN television station. "After the blast people were

running like anything."

 

Varanasi, 720 kilometres east of New Delhi, is Hinduism's holiest

city and is usually filled with pilgrims visiting temples and

bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges, which runs through the

city.

 

It also is a popular spot with foreign tourists, especially

backpackers.

 

Home Secretary V.K. Duggal said Tuesday's blasts were similar to

Oct. 29 bombings in New Delhi that killed 60 people.

 

Like those blasts, blamed on Islamic militants fighting to wrest

predominantly Muslim Kashmir from India, the Varanasi explosions

occurred within 10 minutes of each other, Duggal said.

 

While Varanasi is a largely Hindu city, it also has a sizable Muslim

population.

 

Police and paramilitary troops fanned out in Varanasi after

Tuesday's explosions, and political leaders, among them top

officials for the Hindu nationalist opposition, headed for the city.

 

SOURCE: The Brooks Bulletin. © The Canadian Press, 2006. By MATTHEW

ROSENBERG Tuesday, March 07, 2006

URL: http://www.brooksbulletin.com/news/world_news.asp?itemid=49850