Eight serial blasts in Jaipur; 60 dead, 150 injured

A HELPING HAND: Residents and passersby help an injured man into a waiting ambulance.

                  

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Traffic movement was obstructed immediately after the blast and panic set in among the residents. The police was caught unawares, but quickly moved in, ordering shops to shut down. The area was cordoned off.

According to the authorities, one bomb was probably planted in a car — as there was a badly damaged car in one of the areas. The other bombs — one of which exploded near a handloom showroom — were planted in bicycles.

No intelligence inputs were available earlier, but the police was generally on the alert because of the IPL matches that are taking place in the city.

Terrorist Attack?

Speculation is rife that this could be the handiwork of Lashkar-e-Toiba, but the authorities say that they need some more time to verify this.

There is also some talk that the blasts could be the handiwork of Bangladesh-based terror outfit, HuJI (Harkut-ul-Jehadi Islami) or the work of SIMI activists — many of whom were recently rounded up and arrested.

The fact that bombs were planted in bicycles indicate a similarity to the Malegaon blasts in 2006, causing the authorities to feel that the same group may have planted the bombs in Jaipur.

The Chief Secretary Jaipur, BC Sawant, told CNN-IBN that the DGP of Rajasthan reached the spot soon after the bombs exploded. "We are hopeful to have control on the situation very soon," Sawant further stated.

The blasts have happened at a time when the whole of Jaipur is in the grips of IPL cricket frenzy. Most of the police and security forces are busy in the preparations of the IPL matches.

New Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka, Bihar, Hyderabad and Maharashtra have been put on high alert and the National Security Guard has reached Jaipur. Rapid Action Force personnel have been deployed in Jaipur to help deal with the situation as security was beefed up.

All the city borders as well as Rajasthan state borders have been sealed.

The Rajasthan government has announced a relief of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased killed in the serial blasts.

An official spokesman told news agencies that relief of Rs 1 lakh would also be provided to each of those who were critically injured and Rs 25,000 would be given to other injured in the blasts.

There have been communal tensions in the city, but no blasts except for the blast in October 2007 at the dargah of the Sufi saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer. Then two people were killed and 17 injured.

(Reporting by CNN-IBN Correspondent Swati Vashishta )