Curfew imposed in Indian city “Jaipur” after deadliest serial bomb attacks

Indian police blamed terrorists for blasts that killed as many as 60 people in the northern Indian city of Jaipur yesterday in the South Asian nation’s deadliest attack in more than a year.

“It is a terrorist plot, it is obvious,” said A.S. Gill, director general of police.

Some people were detained for questioning as the authorities imposed a curfew in 15 regions of Jaipur, known as the “Pink City” for its dusty rose-colored sandstone buildings. Sriniwas Rao, Inspector General of Police, said by phone. More than 100 people were injured by nine bombs on bicycles 500 meters (1,640 feet) apart, police said.

The attacks are the worst since 68 people were killed on a cross-border train running from the capital, New Delhi, to Lahore in neighboring Pakistan in February 2007. India’s federal government has stepped up security across the nation, with a “high alert” being declared in cities including New Delhi and Mumbai, Junior Home Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said.

“The kind of material used, the structure of the explosives and the way it was used, is not the work of any ordinary person,” said Gulab Chand Kataria, Rajasthan home minister. Royal demolition explosive, known as RDX, was packed with pellets, he said. “Experts must be involved.”

“Mangled Bicycles”

Television pictures showed pools of blood that stained the streets, shopping bags strewn around and mangled bicycles at the scene of the blasts. The Indian Express newspaper carried a photo of a man slumped in the backseat of a cycle rickshaw on its front page today.

The federal government sent a team of experts to assist with the investigation, the home ministry said. “The priority is to quickly identify the culprits and apprehend them at the earliest,” the home ministry said. “The home ministry has issued advisories to all the states to heighten the alert.”

Harkut-ul Jihad al Islami, a group based in Bangladesh, is suspected of being behind the attack, state-run broadcaster Doordarshan cited unidentified Home Ministry officials as saying.

The police is investigating these claims, Rajasthan minister Kataria said. The police defused one device, he said. “We have not got any major leads,” H.G. Raghavendra Suhasa, a superintendent of police of Jaipur city, said by phone. No arrests have been made, he said.

President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attacks. “She has appealed for peace and calm,” the president’s office said in a statement. The prime minister pledged assistance to the state government in Rajasthan and the victims’ families, his office said.

“No Justification”

“There is no justification for the murder of innocent people,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement from Washington yesterday. The U.S. stands with India in the fight to “eliminate the scourge of terrorism,” it said.

The attacks may dent India’s efforts to promote the world’s second-most populous nation as a tourist destination as Jaipur forms the western leg of the so-called Golden Triangle that includes New Delhi and Agra, home to the Taj Mahal.

The blasts occurred near the city’s main tourist attraction, the 18th Century Palace of the Winds, or Hawa Mahal. This is the off-peak season for tourism, when summer temperatures may reach at least 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

“Attacks Condemned”

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attacks in Jaipur. “Pakistan condemns all acts of terrorism and reaffirms its firm commitment to fight this scourge together with the international community,” Gilani said in a release.

Previous attacks in India have been blamed on Muslim Kashmiri separatists. India has repeatedly asked the government in Islamabad to prevent extremists crossing the border to carry out attacks. Pakistan has denied the allegation, saying it only lends moral support to a freedom struggle in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Terrorists from Pakistan and Bangladesh are collaborating to carry out attacks in India using the Bangladeshi border as a crossing point, A.K. Mitra, director general of India’s Border Security Force, said in December. India handed Bangladesh a list of 141 militants and criminals it wants detained when the countries held security talks in Dhaka last November.

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