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A bomb apparently hidden in a briefcase has exploded outside India's
high court in New Delhi, killing 10 and wounding at least 45. By Rahul Bedi, New Delhi 9:30AM BST 07 Sep 2011 Police said the death toll could rise as around 60 others were injured
in the blast, many of them seriously, which took place at around 10am
when the court in central Delhi was at its busiest.
P Chidambaram, home minister, immediately told parliament the bombing
was a "terrorist attack" but added that it was not immediately possible
to identify those responsible. According to federal home secretary, R K Singh, the bomb was placed at
the High Court's security gate which hundreds of people must clear to
enter the court. It shook the courthouse sending judges, lawyers and litigants fleeing
from the building. "There was panic everywhere as the blast occurred," eyewitness Krishan
Kumar said. Those nearby were momentarily stunned and then started to panic, he said. Sangeeta Sondhi, a lawyer who was parking her car close to where the
bomb exploded said. "There was smoke everywhere. People were running and
shouting. There was blood everywhere. It was very, very scary" The
capital was placed on high alert with police check points being set up
leading to large traffic jams across the city. Indian security officials said the outlawed Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami
(HUJI) militant group based in both Bangladesh and Pakistan had sent an
email claiming responsibility. "That mail has to be looked at very seriously because HUJI is a very
prominent terrorist group among whose targets India is one," S C Sinha
head of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) inquiring into the bomb
strike said. In its email to the NIA the Islamist group demanded that India repeal
the death sentence of a man convicted of attacking the Indian parliament
in 2001 who was awaiting execution by hanging. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is currently on an official visit
to neighbouring Bangladesh, the first visit by an Indian prime minister
in over a decade. India's National Security Guard commandos, ambulances and forensic teams
quickly reached the scene along with sniffer dogs and a bomb disposal
unit to check for further bombs. Intermittent monsoon rain hampered work by forensics teams and police
struggled to keep curious onlookers away. The federal National Investigation Agency said it was working closely
with other security agencies to investigate the incident. The blast was the second explosion at Delhi's High Court this year after
the small explosion in the car park in May which caused little or no damage. Wednesday's bomb strike was the first major terror attack in India after
a coordinated bombing in three crowded Mumbai neighbourhoods in July
which killed 30 people. Suspicion for those attacks fell on the Indian Mujahedeen though no
arrests have yet been made. Police secure the scene of a blast outside the High Court in New Delhi Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday condemned the
"cowardly" attack. "This is a cowardly act of a terrorist nature," Mr Singh, who is
currently on a visit to Bangladesh, told television reporters in Dhaka. "We will never succumb to the pressure of terrorism. This is a long war
in which all political parties, all the the people of India, have to
stand united so that this scourge of terrorism is crushed," The most recent deadly bomb attacks in India were near-simultaneous
triple blasts in India's financial capital, Mumbai, in July. The blast in the heart of the capital will renew concern about the
authorities' ability to prevent attacks, particularly in sensitive,
high-risk areas. The blast outside the court, seen as a high profile but soft target,
comes at a time when the judiciary is in sharp focus for nudging the
government to act on issues ranging from corruption to the environment. Ruling Congress party politicians have over the past year attacked the
Supreme Court for overstepping its authority and intervening in
executive functions. The Supreme Court is the highest court in India.
The High Court is the court of appeal at state or provincial level. Medical attendants rush a wounded blast victim to the trauma centre at
the RML Hospital in New Delhi "So an attack on such a target will bring you the maximum mileage," said
independent strategic analyst Maj. Gen. Ashok Mehta. "Also, notice that
this comes just days before 9/11, so the government should have expected
something like this." Several bomb attacks in large Indian cities in recent years have been
tied to the Indian Mujahideen, said to have support from Pakistan-based
militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. In May, a low-intensity blast outside the same court triggered panic but
injured no one. Pakistan-based militants attacked Mumbai in coordinated assaults that
killed 166 people in 2008, raising tensions with nuclear-armed arch
rival Pakistan. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his government came under intense
criticism over the handling of those attacks. The government promised a
radical overhaul of the security apparatus in India but critics say the
reforms have been inadequate and in some cases abandoned. "This is a glaring example of the shortage of intelligence, both human
and technical - something if we had we could have prevented these
attacks," said Ajai Sahni, executive director at the Institute for
Conflict Management in New Delhi.
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