Wounded evacuated from blast scene
Photo: Reuters
India blasts kill 18
Several explosions rock New Delhi Saturday evening; Muslim group claims responsibility
A coordinated series of explosions struck a park and crowded shopping areas across the Indian capital Saturday evening, killing at least 18 people and wounding at least 61 more, officials said. A Muslim militant group claimed responsibility for the bombings. A number of Indian media outlets received an e-mail sent just before the blasts warning that India was about to receive "The Message of Death."
"In the name of Allah, Indian Mujahideen strikes back once more. ... Do whatever you can. Stop us if you can," said the message.
All of the bombs exploded in, or very near, crowded shopping areas in various parts of New Delhi. They began going off just before sundown - prime time for weekend shoppers in this crowded, chaotic city. Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said there had been five explosions, though Mayor Arti Mehra said there had been as many as seven, and that at least 61 people had been wounded.
"It's a very cowardly act of violence," Mehra told reporters near the scene of two of the explosions, in the M-Block market of the city's upscale Greater Kailash neighborhood. "They want to break the spirit of Delhi. They have tried this in other places before and they have not succeeded and they will not succeed here. They will not scare us."
An unexploded bomb was also recovered near India Gate, a colonial-era memorial that is one of the country's best-known symbols, said Joint Commissioner of Police Ajay Kashyap, Press Trust of India news agency reported. On weekend evenings, the park around India Gate is packed with families who flock there to picnic, buy ice cream for their children and enjoy the grass and the fountains.
The Indian Mujahideen was unknown before May, when it claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in the western city of Jaipur that killed 61 people. The group also said it was responsible for July blasts in the western state of Gujarat that killed at least 45.
