Trails of blood in the pink city

It was 7:35, and as I switched on the TV to watch the IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils, I saw “Breaking News” popping up on almost every news channel. Within 15 minutes or so, it gathered momentum and what Jaipur witnessed on the fateful Tuesday evening was devastating. And within hour, the intensity of the casualties was clear. With it was the hidden hands of terrorists did the most heinous crime on earth. This was Rajasthan’s second brush with terrorism in recent years — the last being a bomb blast at the Ajmer Sharif dargah of Moinuddin Chisti on October 11, 2007 that killed three devotees.

Within a span of 15 minutes, six high intensity bombs exploded in the walled city of Jaipur, the area called pink city, which left 80 dead and more than 150 injured as the news last coming in. Among the victims are hapless women, children and tourists. In the SMS hospital, there was a chaos at one time as the injured people were being brought in great number and not many doctors were available at the time.

All the five spots where the bomb went off fall in the circumference of 2-3 km and very busy, congested and full of people. From Chandpole to Jauhro Bazaar to Manas Chowk, the whole area witnessed one of the greatest tragedies that this country has undergone so far due to terror attacks. The timing was also very coincidental as office goers, buyers and sellers plus tourists who prefer to come in the evening in this hot season fell prey to the explosions.

It is again terror attack on India, well planned and executed. The State police chief AS Gill confirmed it saying that it was a terrorist plot. “The way it has been done, the attempt was to cause maximum damage,” he said and did not rule out the use of RDX and timer devices.

The temples were chosen obviously because Tuesdays are special for Hanuman worship, and the explosions would have the maximum impact. The bombs were carried on seven bicycles bought locally by the terrorists.

Though no one has claimed responsibility yet, security and intelligence sources said the explosions could be the handiwork of the Bangladesh-based HuJI or the Pakistan-based Lashkar-i-Tayyeba. The home minister said one suspect had been detained and was being investigated.

As we started believing that terrorism is perhaps slowly dying out from this country that this terrifying incident has happened. India has still to fight as the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje has rightly pointed out that it concerned the security of the nation.