Indian City Shaken by Temple Bombings

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VARANASI, India (March 9, 2006): Their hushed voices were drowned out

by the howls of demonstrators. Just a stone's throw away lay the gory

wreckage of Tuesday's temple blast.

 

But inside a small square chamber on the compound of the Sankat

Mochan temple on Wednesday afternoon sat four men facing their monkey

god and carrying out a job they had been paid to do: chanting the

name of a Hindu god as a prayer for a stranger who was sick.

 

"Om Sri Ram, jai Ram, jai jai Ram," the men muttered through the din

and sensation. An interruption of the incantation could not be

allowed.

 

Modern terror more than interrupted the rhythm of this 400-year-old

institution, as it did, in smaller ways, the rhythm of daily life in

this 2,500-year-old city. A pair of homemade bombs on Tuesday evening

tore through the Sankat Mochan temple and the nearby city railway

station, killing at least 14 and injuring more than 100.

 

Law enforcement authorities on Wednesday said explosives had been

stuffed inside a pressure cooker and left inside an inconspicuous bag

at each site. The police found a similar unexploded device at a busy

city market. The bomb at the train station left a wide shallow crater

at the terminal; shrapnel pockmarked the ceiling above. The police

said they did not know who was responsible.

 

The other bomb was set off at dusk in the courtyard of the Sankat

Mochan temple, dedicated to the Hindu monkey deity, Hanuman, as

thousands of worshipers gathered for the evening oil-lamp prayers.

Tuesday is the most auspicious day at the Hanuman temple, and dozens

of couples had come to be blessed in marriage.

 

The blast forced all services to be suspended for four hours. "For us

what could be a more shattering experience?" the temple's head priest

and administrator, Veer Bhadra Mishra, 68, wondered aloud on

Wednesday. Hindus believe the temple compound, surrounded by woods,

is Hanuman's home.

 

Clashes between Hindus and Muslims did not come to pass, as feared,

despite protest marches called by Hindu radicals and their politician

allies. Varanasi, also known as Benares, was free of violence

Wednesday.

 

But the city was also missing its usual chaotic, vibrant and intense

character. With a strike called by a number of Hindu nationalist

groups, schools and businesses across the city were closed. Boatmen

at the Ganges River, a daily draw for pilgrims and tourists,

complained bitterly that business had dropped off. Varanasi's narrow,

normally impassable streets could be easily navigated.

 

Several Muslim shopkeepers said they had shuttered their businesses

as a gesture of respect for the dead and their families, and they sat

on the stoops of their shops chewing betel leaves, chatting, watching

the day pass. Riot police officers stood at street corners.

 

Politicians quickly seized upon the Varanasi blasts, coming as they

did in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, where elections

are expected to be held later this year.

 

L. K. Advani, the leader of the opposition Hindu-nationalist

Bharatiya Janata Party, on Wednesday accused the government, led by

the Congress Party, of not being tough enough on terrorists and

announced a procession to denounce the blasts.

 

Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress Party, wasted no time in rushing

to the city to commiserate with victims and their families and review

the damage. With Congress eager to reclaim Uttar Pradesh from a local

rival political party, Mrs. Gandhi pressed both the state and federal

governments to capture the culprits and mete out "very strict

punishment." The Congress Party's main rival, Uttar Pradesh's chief

minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, called for unity.

 

Meanwhile, state officials announced that the police in the town of

Lucknow, also in Uttar Pradesh, had shot and killed a wanted man

suspected of being a militant and for having links to Kashmir

insurgents. They offered no concrete evidence linking the dead

suspect to the Varanasi bombing. "We are collecting evidence," said

Yashpal Singh, the state police chief. "We do not have any solid

proof to move in a particular direction."

 

At the normally bustling commercial strip called Bengali Tola, the

shopkeepers, most all of them Muslims, had closed their shops and

headed home Tuesday night as soon as the news of the blasts came. By

the end of the night, they said they had resolved to take the day

off. There was no telling, they said, what violence could flare up.

 

"We want that you should write we also regret this very deeply, we

also feel the sorrow," said Muhammad Yusha, 45, who makes his living

as a polisher of Varanasi's famous silk saris.

 

Never before, said a sari shop owner, Mumtaz Ahmed, 38, had he seen

virtually every Muslim-owned shop closed for the day. "This kind of

shutdown has never happened before," he said. "But nor has this kind

of attack."

 

By midafternoon, Sankat Mochan was thick with visitors, but they were

by and large visiting politicians, gawkers, journalists from afar and

crowds of Hindu hard-liners who noisily denounced their political

opponents and waved flags.

 

A small stream of worshipers sat before the altar, mumbling quiet

prayers amid the bustle. "For a devotee there's no disturbance,"

Surender Singh, a timber merchant, said. "I'm doing my worship in

God's house." He said he could not be bothered with protests.

 

 

SOURCE: The New York Times. Indian City Shaken by Temple Bombings.

March 9, 2006, by SOMINI SENGUPTA

URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/international/asia/09india.html?

_r=1&oref=slogin