India Rail, Temple Blasts Kill 15
BY: STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Mar 7, NEW DELHI, INDIA (CNN) — Three explosions in the holy Indian city of Varanasi have killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens.
The first blast was in the Hindu Sankat Mochan temple on Tuesday, according to Indian Home Secretary V.K. Dugal. The other two blasts occurred at a railway station where an express train was boarding, police said. There were casualties, they said, but the number was unknown. Officials said they expected the casualty count to rise.
The blasts were aimed at "soft" targets "to create tension and disrupt communal harmony," Dugal said.
All three blasts occurred just a few minutes apart, between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. (1200 and 1230 GMT) on Tuesday. The Associated Press quoted policeman Mohammed Hashmi as saying the railway station blast went off inside a train.
Witness Sunil Yadav told AP there also was a blast near the ticket counter in the waiting room of the crowded station. Several parts of the Indian city in Uttar Pradesh state were cordoned off, police said, and temples in the area -- and as far away as New Delhi -- were on high alert.
The idols at the temple, which are busiest on Tuesdays, were safe, police said. The shrine is usually crowded at dusk with devout Hindus making a nightly offering to the monkey-god Hanuman, AP quoted police inspector Madan Mohan Pande as saying.
Authorities were working to determine what caused the blasts in Varanasi, which is located about 700 km (450 miles) southeast of the capital New Delhi. Political leaders suggested it was a bombing with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemning the explosions and a top state official promising stern action against those responsible, AP reported. Cities across India were put on high alert.
Singh also appealed for calm, said his spokesman, Sanjaya Baru. Varanasi is Hinduism's holiest city and is ordinarily filled with pilgrims visiting temples and bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges River, which runs through town. It is also a popular spot with foreign tourists, especially backpackers, according to AP.
