By Ozer Khalid
On October the 29th three ghoulish bomb blasts rocked the spine of Delhi leaving 61 dead in their ghastly wake. Traffic-free are Delhi's roads in an aberrantly unambiguous metropolis. Gaudy neon lights are dimmed. Rattled citizens are house-bound. Cops at checkpoints rake a discerning gaze into many automobiles with a flashlight fever as fear strappingly grips a city paralyzed with deadly panic.
Delhi-ite Diwali festivities with their flickering candles took a sobering thump as the glittering saris and citizenry are interposed with a panic-stricken dyslexia. Fireworks and firecrackers are igniting every few seconds with a hitherto unseen poignant prudence. Many would-be revelers sagaciously heeded the government's caveat to stay within their safer sanctuaries.
Bloodstained streets and mangled bodies of innocent mothers and children are all menacingly spread on the ground with their arms apart. Tributaries of blood first blemished in Paharganj, potted off the Main Bazaar, with a heartrending massacre of 18 and seriously injured 60 victims. The explosive device was planted in a two-wheeler. When the bomb exploded it completely dissected a medical shop.
The second blast cursed a bus in Govindpuri where 4 victims died. Within minutes of the second explosion, at 6:05 pm (IST), the third explosion wreaked havoc at Sarojini Nagar market where a devastating 43 people died. Forensic experts reportedly claim that the explosive du choix was RDX. Testimony to this are witnesses who state that the biggest blast at the Sarojini Nagar market caused a huge ball of fire that RDX commonly creates. A chemical explosive had been ruled out because there was no pungent smell reported after the blast.
38 were declared dead in Safdarjang hospital, 10 in Lady Hardinge Hospital, 5 in Ram Manohar Lohia hospital and 2 in AIIMS.The number of fatalities has rocketed up to 61 and at least 188 are injured.
An eery familiarity with the London bombings resonates as newsflashes are consumed with images of people crying. People's gut reactions during Dickensian bleak times like these bear a universal similitude.
The government's social conscience transpires as Rs 3 lakh will be donated ex-gratia to the next of kin of every dead person and the gravely injured will get Rs 50,000," substantiated Delhi's Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit .
Speculations are rife that this pandemonium bears the handiwork of perilous perpetrators Lashkar-e-Toiba, with alleged ties to al-Qaeda. Islami Inqalabi Mahaz, reportedly contacted media in Kashmir to claim responsibility for the blasts. The caller, who identified himself as Ahmed Yaar Ghaznavi, said the attack "was meant as a rebuff to the claims of Indian security groups" that militant fighters had been wiped out by military crackdowns and the gargantuan earthquake that battered Pakistan on Oct. 8.
The blasts have sparked off foreseeable qualms throughout Delhi, shattering a festive atmosphere. Media vultures and nationalistic ethnic bigots on the wrong end of political spectra will be rhetorically ricocheting religio-nationalistic venom across various foray to notch up cross-border apprehension.
Given this caveat a silver lining amidst the clouds emerges as India and Pakistan agreed on October the 28th to open 5 crossings along the Line of Control in the dispute-driven Kashmir, in an endeavor to abet victims of Mother Nature`s October the 8th devastation. Such an upbeat evolution should not be dismantled by cowardly hysteria-hungry terror-demons.
Plots and skirmishes have footnoted the sub-continent's history, warmongering coupled with bomb blasts sometimes provide the punctuation. The question is can we as a South Asian people stem the tide and end this feudal-frenzied animosity through cross-border rapport-building ? Only then will the spectre of the blame-game be removed from the caricature of Indo-Pak relations.
Footnote:
If you are abroad and alarmed about family and/or friends call:
Casualties
• Delhi Police Control Room - 100
• Delhi Traffic Help Line - 91-11-2337-8888
• Lady Hardinge Hospital - 91-11-2334-3984