Bandh, fear, confusion in Varanasi after blasts
by Girish Kumar Dubey

     Varanasi: An atmosphere of fear and confusion is prevailing in the temple town of Varanasi, a day after a series of bomb blasts killed over 12 people and injured more 50 others. Anticipating trouble and a possible political fallout from the blasts, local authorities in Varanasi have ordered the shutting down of all schools and colleges, besides business establishments. With the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) announcing plans for a state-wide shutdown, including in Varanasi, security forces from areas bordering the temple town have been rushed in to prevent any untoward incident or law and order problem. The VHP shutdown call has been announced by its local chief, Kameshwar Upadhyay.

    Informed sources confirmed that 13 companies of the elite Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been deployed across the temple town, and especially near the Sankat Mochan Temple and the Varanasi Cantonement Railway Station, the spots where the blasts took place on Tuesday evening. Police and paramilitary contingents from the neighbouring towns of Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Badhoi and Mirzapur have been called in to help the local police and the RAF maintain law and order. Roads leading into and out of Varanasi have been closed to traffic with the authorities not willing to take any chances. A host of political leaders have started descending on the temple town to inquire after the welfare of the injured, who have been admitted to the Benares Hindu Hospital, the Heritage Hospital and the Singh Medical Research Hospital. They will also be briefed about the latest security situation arising in the wake of the blasts. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav arrived in Varanasi at 9.30 a.m. this morning to review the overall situation. Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, besides Union Home Secretary V.K.Duggal arrived in the temple town late last night. Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh and senior BJP leader and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh will arrive here after noon. They are expected to mobilise their party workers into offering help to the families of the injured. The authorities are anticipating political-related trouble.

    There were at least two high-intensity blasts that rocked the renowned Sankatmochan Temple and the Cantonment Railway Station in Varanasi on Tuesday evening. The Director General of Railway Protection Force, A K Suri, said there was a third blast at the holding area of the platform at the Varanasi Railway Station. The blasts occurred between 1700 hours and 1830 hours (IST). At least 20 deaths were confirmed at 9 p.m. on Tuesday. The explosions set off a near-stampede situation as devotees scrambled to rush out to safety. Workers at the temple ferried injured persons, which included several old women, to the hospital. The worst casualties were reported from the railway station, where 14 people were reported killed and 30 others injured. A powerful bomb was placed outside the waiting room at around 6.25 a.m. on Platform No 1, where Delhi-bound Shivaganga express train was waiting for passengers to board, official sources said. The blast at the railway station was so powerful that it has created a one-foot deep crater and smashed window panes and wooden structures all around. The area is still splattered with blood and scattered with body parts and passengers' belongings soaked in blood. Four live bombs were also disarmed near Dashaswhamedh Ghat, about two kilometres away from the Kashi Vishwanath temple. After the balsts, the Shivaganga train was thoroughly checked before it was declard safe and resumed its journey to Delhi. A bomb squad later defused another explosive at the Gudauliya market in the vicinity. The Sankatmochan temple has been closed and all entry and exit points of Varanasi have been sealed. While police initially attributed the explosion to a cooking gas cylinder blast, intelligence sources confirmed sophisticated explosive devices had been used in the blasts. Sources said Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba was involved in the blasts.

Mulayam appeals for calm

     Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has appealed for calm after a series of explosions in Varanasi on Tuesday evening in which at least 20 persons were killed and over 50 were injured. "I appeal to the people of India that have always believed in living in harmony to maintain it now. I especially appeal to the people of Uttar Pradesh to face the situation with patience and courage and be prepared to fight the people who have done this," Yadav told reporters here. Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the incident was "an attempt by desperate elements to disturb communal harmony and peace". Three explosions hit the holy city within a span of 45 minutes on Tuesday evening. One explosion occurred in the packed Sankat Mochan temple and two blasts rocked one of the city's main cantonment railway station. The three explosions occurred between 6 p.m. and 6.45 p.m., police said. No group claimed responsibility for the blasts and officials said it was too early to pin blame. But most previous attacks on Hindu temples in India have been blamed on Islamic militants. Authorities ordered increased security across India to prevent any clashes between Hindus and Muslims. Temple-studded Varanasi, 670 km (415 miles) southeast of New Delhi, is on the banks of the Ganges River in Uttar Pradesh and is one of holiest cities. Hindus believe that dying in Varanasi, being cremated on the banks of the Ganges and the ashes immersed in the river ensures release from the cycle of rebirth. Many elderly and ill people come to the city if they believe they are close to death. The Sankat Mochan temple, one of India's most ancient, is dedicated to monkey god Hanuman, and its name means "deliverer from troubles". The temple is filled with people on Tuesdays as it is considered particularly holy by devotees of Hanuman. The attack sparked fears of sectarian strife in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, which has a history of Hindu-Muslim clashes and has also been a target of Islamist militants in the past. Congress party also appealed to people to cooperate with the authorities to maintain communal harmony. "Because this is not a political issue, the most important thing is to maintain peace there and to see that this does not affect any other place. We have to see that those who are injured are treated properly. There is a need to maintain peace in the area and to make sure that this incident does not flare up," Congress General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi said in New Delhi. Security has been tightened in Gujarat's Akshardham temple, where a terrorist attack killed over 30 people in 2002. In Maharashtra, authorities stepped up security in financial hub Mumbai where serial blasts claimed at least 300 lives in 1993. Security is at an all-time high for prominent Hindu temples. "We have increased security cover in the Sidhi Vinayak temple here. People visiting the temple are being thoroughly checked." Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 4, Mumbai) Santhosh Rastogi said. Last July, unidentified gunmen stormed Ayodhya, another holy site in Uttar Pradesh and a tinderbox for Hindu-Muslim violence for decades. All six attackers, who police said were Islamist militants who were killed in a two-hour gunfight with police guarding the site. In October last year, three powerful bombs ripped through packed markets in New Delhi killing at least 66 people and wounding more than 100.

Security stepped up across North India

     Allahabad/New Delhi/Jammu: A thick blanket of security has been spread over major cities across India following a series of explosions in the Uttar Pradesh temple town of Varanasi. Police said that security has been beefed up in Allahabad, where the three holy rivers -- Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati -- meet, and where most Hindus go to perform the last rites of their loved ones. Extra security forces have been deployed at all public places, especially temples. "We have increased security at temples and the entire city is under high security alert," said Akhilesh Mahrotra, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Allahabad. No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts that occurred between 6 p.m. and 6.45 p.m., police said. Officials said it was too early to pin blame on any one particular terrorist outfit, though there are rumours circulating of a Bangladeshi terrorist being involved. But most previous attacks on Hindu temples in India have been blamed on Islamic militants. The authorities have ordered increased security across northern India to prevent any clashes between the country's majority Hindus and minority Muslim communities. Temple-studded Varanasi, 670 km (415 miles) southeast of New Delhi, is on the banks of the Ganges river in Uttar Pradesh state and is one of Hinduism's holiest cities. Hindus believe that dying in Varanasi, being cremated on the banks of the Ganges and the ashes immersed in the river ensures release from the cycle of rebirth. Many elderly and ill people come to the city if they believe they are close to death. The Sankat Mochan temple, one of India's most ancient, is dedicated to Hinduism's monkey god Hanuman, and its name means "deliverer from troubles". The temple is filled with people on Tuesdays as it is considered particularly holy by devotees of Hanuman. The attack sparked fears of sectarian strife in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, which has a history of Hindu-Muslim clashes and has also been a target of Islamist militants in the past. Last July, unidentified gunmen stormed Ayodhya, another holy site in the state and a tinderbox for Hindu-Muslim violence for decades. All six attackers, who police said were Islamist militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, were killed in a two-hour gunfight with police guarding the site. In October last year, three powerful bombs ripped through packed markets in New Delhi killing at least 66 people and wounding more than 100. Hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers meanwhile swarmed across Indian Kashmir's Hindu-dominated Jammu city in the wake of the blasts. Kashmir's Jammu had witnessed a terrorist siege at its main Hindu temple in 2002 in which four people were killed. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in mainly Hindu India's only Muslim-majority state since a separatist revolt against New Delhi began in 1989. Violence continues in Kashmir despite a peace process between India and Pakistan, both of which claim the territory, launched two years ago.

Parliament adjourns over Varanasi blasts

     New Delhi: The proceedings of both the Houses of the Parliament were adjourned on Wednesday after opposition created uproar over the serial bomb blasts in Varansai, in which at least 20 were killed and over 50 were injured. Angry opposition members trooped into the Well of both Houses of Parliament to blame the Manmohan Singh Government for the incidents. Most of them said that the ruling UPA and the Mulayam Singh Government in Uttar Pradesh were giving a boost to religious fundamentalism through overt and covert means. Attempts by Somnath Chatterjee, the Speaker, to read out a statement condemning the "heinous acts of violence" in Varanasi failed to pass opposition muster, especially in the case of the BJP members, who were up on their feet vociferously raising slogans "Har Har Mahadev" against the government. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil told the House and the media that Tuesday's explosives were hidden inside a pressure cooker and a timer device was used to trigger off the blast at the Sankat Mochan Temple in Varanasi. Patil, who visited Varanasi along with Congress President Sonia Gandhi late last night, said that the Centre was providing all assistance to the Uttar Pradesh Government in maintaining peace in the temple town. "I have been informed that the explosive was kept in a pressure cooker which had Ammonium Nitrate and a timer device. The casualty at the temple was less and more lives were lost at the cantonment railway station," he told reporters here. At least 20 people were killed and over 50 injured in the blasts at the Sankatmochan temple and Cantonment Railway station yesterday. "The Centre as well as the state government will try to nab those responsible for yesterday's blasts as soon as possible and ensure that they are punished. There is no need to fight each other or indulge in a blame game. We have to be united in our fight," said Patil. The state government and the police are doing their best to keep the situation under control, he said, adding that the Centre is providing all assistance to them. Patil praised the people of Varanasi for facing the situation courageously and for maintaining peace and calm

      Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh's Prinicpal Secretary (Home) Alok Sinha informed that the twin bomb blasts in Varanasi are terrorists handiwork, and the state government has ordered a probe into the incident by the special task force. After visiting the blast sites and meeting the injured, Sinha said that the attacks were "definitely the handiwork of terrorists". He notified that the state government has ordered a probe into the blasts by Special Task Force (STF) to be headed by the Inspector General of Police Jagmohan Lal Yadav. He said the nature of the explosives used in the blasts would be known only after the forensic tests are conducted. The state government has announced a compensation to the kin of the dead and injured, Sinha said.

    Meanwhile, hours after the blasts in Varanasi, a suspected Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militant was shot dead in an encounter with the police in Gosaiganj area on the outskirts of Lucknow. Police identified the militant as Salar alias Doctor and did not rule out his involvement in Tuesday's blasts at the Sankat Mochan temple and Cantonment railway station in Varanasi, which claimed at least twenty lives. RDX and some detonators were recivered from his possession after the encounter with the Special Task Force (STF), police sources said. Sources said that Salar was on his way to Lucknow when he was shot dead by the STF in an encoutner. Salar, a Pakistani national, was involved in the conspiracy to carry out a suicide attack at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun, which was foiled by the timely tip off by central security agencies. Police were on the lookout for him for quite some time, the sources said adding he was also involved in the Republic Day terrorist attack Jaipur.

BJP/VHP shutdown paralyses normal life
by G.Dubey

    Varanasi: Normal life was paralysed in the temple town of Varansi as a shutdown call sponsored by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad took effect on Wednesday, a day after twin bomb blasts left at least 20 killed and about 50 injured. Markets wore a deserted look as shops and other business establishments throughout the city remained closed in protest against the blasts. Vehicular traffic in the city was thin with people not venturing out on the roads apprehending law and order problems. Schools, colleges and other educational institutions were closed following an order from the district administration in view of the bandh. The academic institutions would remain closed till further orders, official sources said. Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in the city, particularly at the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Mosque complex and other places of worship and also at the airport, railway stations, bus stands, they said. Patrolling has also been been intensified to maintain law and order and also to monitor the activiites of the anti-social and other criminal elements, the sources said adding no untoward incident had been reported anywhere in the district and other adjoining areas.

Back to Headlines                  Go To Top