NationStates Jolt Archive

Multiple blasts in Varanasi, a very holy city for Hindus. Looks like Lashkar-e-pigs are involved. Probably a backlash for the Bush visit. Looks like some Indian muslims are also involved. More details awaited.

* blast at the waiting room in cantonment station
* blast at crowded Sankat mochan temple - atleast 4 dead
* one bomb defused in Badauniya market in heart of city, more bombs said to be found, squad is trying to defuse
* rumours of more bombs found in Dashamesh ghat
* stampede at crowded temple after blasts

http://www.ibnlive.com/article.php?id=6460&section_id=3
Varanasi: At least 20 people are feared killed and many others injured when two high-intensity blasts 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 2100 hours (IST) on Tuesday.

An explosion was reported outside the Sankatmochan temple at around 1700 hours (IST) when a large number of devotees were present for the Tuesday evening 'aarti'. Tuesday is considered a special day for Lord Hanuman, the monkey God.

The explosion set off panic and 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 injured were rushed to various hospitals in the city, including nearby government hospital, which is located near the railway station.

Minutes before, another blast was reported outside the Station Master's office in the Cantonment Railway Station, suggesting the attack was pre-planned and a concerted attack.

Worst casualty was 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 1825 hours (IST) 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 created a one-foot deep crater and smashed window panes and wooden structures all around.

When CNN-IBN team reached the spot, it witnesses the area splattered with blood and scattered with body parts and passengers' belongings soaked in blood.

There was also report of a second blast at the railway station, but it remains unconfirmed.

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 ghe blasts.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060202/asp/calcutta/story_5793394.asp
Lashkar tag on cuffed trio
- Interrogation reveals plot for major blast in crowded public spot

The banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) had been plotting a major blast at a “crowded public place” in the city. The revelation, police said, has been made by 33-year-old Lashkar leader Tariq Akhtar, arrested on Madan Street on Tuesday evening.

Based on information provided by Akhtar, the city police arrested two other members of the outfit, in Jamshedpur and Varanasi, on Wednesday.

An electrician who had been to Qatar between 2001 and 2003, Akhtar had come to the city from Jamshedpur a few days ago and was camping here to pick up raw material for explosives and inspect the site where the outfit had planned to carry out the blast.

“The three are members of the group that had masterminded blasts in Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi. They might have also been involved in the attack at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,” police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee said on Wednesday. “It’s too early to know their game plan, but the arrests are a great breakthrough.”

Akhtar, who admitted being a dedicated Lashkar member, had been to Pakistan, where he lived for two years before returning to Jamshedpur. In 2001, he took up an electrician’s job and left for Qatar, where he joined the Lashkar.

Back in Jamshedpur two years later, Akhtar started recruiting members for the outfit. After some time, he left for Bangladesh. “It was in Bangladesh that he was trained in handling explosives,” commissioner Mukherjee said. “He is an expert in improvised explosive devices. We have recovered several incriminating documents from his Jamshedpur house. He had been to Calcutta in the past and seems to have recruited youths from here, too.”

Following Akhtar’s interrogation, police raided the residence of Noor Ahmed, 28, in Jamshedpur and arrested him. Several Lashkar leaflets and 16 detonators were seized from the house. Ahmed’s statements led the cops to Varanasi, where they rounded up Abdullah Juber, 30.

Jharkhand police sources said Tariq had asked Ahmed to keep the detonators days after the recent Delhi blasts.

That's insane.

Shit.

Heard from NDTV

The first explosion took place outside the temple at around 5 pm (IST) when a large number of devotees were present at the peak evening aarti time.

Minutes later another blast took place outside the room of the station master of the cantonment railway station.

The blast at the temple set out panic and a near-stampede situation as devotees scrambled to rush out to safety.

The Sankat Mochan is situated on the Durgakund road and is among the country's most ancient temples

The attacks were clearly aimed at inciting communal riots a la Gujarat riots.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060203/asp/calcutta/story_5799048.asp
From his base in Jamshedpur’s Garib Nawaz Colony, Lashkar-e-Toiba leader Tariq Akhtar, arrested from Madan Street on Tuesday evening, kept in touch with contacts in a host of countries, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bangladesh.

The city police found the international numbers on the address books of the two cell phones that were seized from him.

The scan also revealed the presence of a fourth member in Tariq’s module. He was present during the October blasts in New Delhi.

The phone numbers of Akhtar’s key contacts in Kashmir and New Delhi were also found on the cell phones.

“It appears that Akhtar was in charge of the entire eastern region and would frequent the city. Some time in July last year, he went to Dhaka to meet a senior Lashkar leader. He received training in explosives there and collected money to be distributed among those he had recruited,” stated Gyanwant Singh, city detective chief.

Back in Jamshedpur, Akhtar continued recruiting for his team and worked on a plan of carrying out an explosion. Of his two associates arrested on Wednesday, Abdullah Zuber, held in Varanasi, had visited the city several times and was a core member of the team.

Zuber was a second-year student in an Islamic educational institution in Varanasi. He was produced in a city court on Thursday and remanded in police custody.

“Zuber hails from Vaishali district, in Bihar. He is as hard a nut to crack as his boss Akhtar,” stated an investigator. The two had plotted to kill a Bajrang Dal leader in Orissa, he added.

According to police, besides Zuber and Noor Ahmed, arrested at Jamshedpur, there are two other key members of the team in Bihar and Jharkhand. They have gone underground since the arrests.

Investigation suggests that Tariq had been recruiting team members for the past one-and-a-half years.

I belive this is the temple that was targetted.

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/afp/20060307/capt.sge.sbw55.070306151852.photo00.photo.default-384x239.jpg?x=380&y=236&sig=3wpJSkRNnzy.9QtHnkyNPg--

An injured girl. No blood/gore but a sad pic.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060307/1913/w030745ajpg

An informative blog on this event.
http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/blog_entry.php?id=6478&author_id=150

The BBC are on it (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4784554.stm): seems they're concerned reciprocal violence could spring up.

I would have been more happy if the Lashkar pigs were captured alive. But this quick action should assuage the outrage in some ways.

http://www.ibnlive.com/article.php?id=6482&section_id=3

Cops gun down suspect mastermind, two LeT men
New Delhi: Hours after the serial blasts in Varanasi - that killed at least 20 people - three suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba militants have been shot dead.

Two of them were killed by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police in an early-morning encounter on Wednesday in Delhi's Bawana district.

One of the militants has been identified as Mohammad Yazdani – a Bangladeshi national. The identity of the other militant has not yet been established.

The Delhi Police have recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from their person. They suspect that these militants were part of a larger conspiracy to trigger similar attacks in Delhi.

However, the cops have not confirmed if those killed were active terrorists or sleeper agents of a bigger terror network.

Sleeper agents are couriers for terror outfits and supply arms and ammunition to active terrorists across the country.

Mastermind?

The third terrorist was killed in a similar encounter by the Special Task Force in the Goasaiganj area of Lucknow in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police have identified the slain militant as Dr Majid alias Salar alias Masalewala and claim he was the mastermind behind the Varanasi blasts.

"It was a well-coordinated encounter by the UP Police. The terrorist killed is Dr Majeed who was trained in Rawalpindi in Pakistan. He was a resident of Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh and was the Commander of the militant outfit Harkatul Ansar. We were looking for him for past few months," Inspector General of J&K Police, K Rajendran said.

The J&K police also claim that Majeed had close links with terrorists in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

However, the authorities in UP have not confirmed if Majeed was related to the blasts.

"We have handed over the investigation to the Special Task Force. The teams are spread all over the state. We hope to get more information soon," Home Secretary, UP, Alok Sinha said.

Varanasi limping back to normalcy

It was a quiet morning in an otherwise buzzing temple town. According to CNN-IBN correspondent Nilanjana Bose, stationed in Varanasi, the town is slowly coming to terms with Tuesday evening's terror attacks and seems to be limping back to normalcy.

Though the raliway station was quiet, the temple complex was crowded with devotees who said that their faith cannot be shaken by the terror attacks.

Security has been beefed-up across the state and there have been no instances of communal clashes.

"We are glad to inform that inspite of the dark incident of Tuesday, Varanasi is peaceful and there is communal harmony. We have deployed 17 companies of CRPF in state, five of them in Varanasi," Sinha, said.