More than 75 injured as explosion rips through reception counter of court; email claims Harkat role
Less than four months after a mysterious bomb went off in the parking lot, a powerful blast ripped through the reception counter of the Delhi High Court complex in the heart of the capital on Wednesday, leaving at least 11 people dead and more than 75 injured.
Even as a red alert was sounded in the city, an email sent to various media organisations claimed responsibility for the blast on behalf of the ‘Harkat-ul-Jihadi.'
The claim, sent from harkatuljihadi2011@gmail.com, threatened similar blasts at the Supreme Court and other major High Courts if the Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru's death sentence was not “repealed.” (sic).
While 57 of the injured have been admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, others have been referred to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, the Apollo Hospital, the Safdarjung Hospital, the Moolchand Hospital and the JPNA Trauma Centre of the AIIMS. The identity of all the deceased, including a 55-year-old woman and three elderly men, has been established.
Compensation
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit announced that Rs. 4 lakh in compensation would be paid to the families of the deceased, Rs. 2 lakh to those who suffered permanent incapacitation, Rs. 1 lakh to those with serious injury, and Rs. 10,000 for those who suffered minor injury.
A preliminary analysis of the samples collected from the spot has suggested that a mixture of some plastic explosive, such as PETN, and ammonium nitrate had been used to configure the bomb kept in a briefcase.
“However, the exact composition will be established through proper laboratory tests,” said a senior officer.
It all happened at 10.14 a.m. when scores of litigants had queued up at the reception desk counters, adjacent to Gate No. 5, to collect entry passes. The deafening explosion created a two-foot crater on the cemented platform, blew off the tin roof and sent splinters flying in all directions. All those standing in a five-metre radius were knocked off their feet.
According to eyewitnesses, the bomb was probably planted in the briefcase placed near a stone bench on the right side of the reception desk. Based on the descriptions provided by two eyewitnesses, the police prepared two sketches of the suspects. A witness claimed that he saw one of the suspects, wearing kurta-pyjama, fleeing towards Purana Qila and he tried to chase him, but the man escaped.
Rahul Gupta, a visibly shaken public interest litigation litigant, said: “I was about to collect my pass when I heard a loud explosion that shook the earth. There was smoke all around. I saw people lying on the ground, some piled up on each other. They were all covered in blood, their clothes torn into shreds. Pieces of clothes were hanging from a tree over the reception desk. Some had lost their limbs. I escaped with splinter injuries in the right hand.”
As many as 22 police control room vans reached the spot and swiftly removed the injured to hospitals with the help of lawyers and volunteers. The area was cordoned off and the site covered with a plastic sheet to protect the evidence from rain.
Officers of the National Investigation Agency and the Delhi Police, personnel of the National Disaster Response Force and bomb experts of the National Security Guard rushed to the site to gather evidence.
No CCTVs
The police found that no closed-circuit television cameras had been installed at any of the entry gates.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram visited the site around 1 p.m. Later in the evening, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital to enquire about the injured.
A case has been registered by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police. While efforts are on to identify those behind the attack, the blast is being perceived as a sequel to an ammonium nitrate-fuelled, low-intensity explosion which occurred outside Gate No.7 of the High Court on May 25. No one was injured in that incident. The case remains unsolved.
Helpline numbers: Safdarjung Hospital - 011-26707444, RML Hospital - 011-23744721.
Keywords: Bomb blast, Delhi High Court, Harkat email
Terror strikes Delhi again
Comments:
Is this the kind of photo you post on the main page. Don't you have any ethics. Don't you think this is not appropriate for the kids? I thought you had better standards.
Investigations on this crime should cease immediately. Should we apprehend the perpetrators and sentence them, various interest groups will be upset. Shyster lawyers will question our constitution, state assemblies will pass resolutions repealing the sentence, linguistic / religious groups will rationalize the crime and our media will judge the efficacy of our investigative apparatus. So why humiliate ourselves with our own actions, let it slide and save ourselves from a heart ache. As a proactive step, should our Govt consider regularising these terrorist acts with formal licensing?
You may just wish to avoid putting up such gory details. You'd at least mitigate the psychological injury. Please think about some responsible journalism. Kindly consider.
We cannot condone another terrorist attacks in spite of intelligence inputs. Home minister/Intelligence chief/Police should be made accountable to people and parliament.
Parliament condemns Terror Attack as usual, but People of India Strongly Condemns Useless Parliamentarians on Terrorism.
One more Jihadi attack and one more cowardly non response from the Government and the country blinded and unwilling to admit the enemy within.Like all other earlier atrocities, I am afraid this too will drag on until another even worse.
It is pathetic to note that the Police did not spare time in the interest of the public whereas the whole time is devoted with the politicians of this nation.It is also that several High Courts like Madras framed so many conditions for PILs to be filed. This should be withdrawn with immediate effect. What is the need to frame guidelines to file PIL? An interested public aiming at the welfare of the Nation or state will file PIL? After this blast only, the Courts have come forward to insist on security system. No one else is to blamed for this such blast but the Government headed by our PM is solely responsible. The Central Government and the Delhi Police deal the matters of Baba Guru Dev and Anna Hazare very well where there are apses in Delhi Police.
Can we have some sanity of the pictures that you show please. Showing dismembered and severed bodies of people dead in the blast is disgusting, and disrespectful to the dead.
The news story is horrific. The picture of the blast site that appears on your front page is very disturbing. Please do not post disturbing images which may be easily viewed by younger audiences.
How many times does a building have to be targeted before some security is put in place? The Delhi High Court has been targeted by a bomb in May of this year, and another one a mere four months later. Yet, there weren't even security cameras at the entrance! I,N,D,I,A = Incompetent, Nonchalant, Dimwitted, Incorrigible, and Arrogant. This very aptly describes the Indian civil system, the government.
Is it necessary to post such picture on the front page. Does it help anyway than making it sensational?
Are we learning from these violence? No more capital punishment in the World is a lesson we should learn. Intelligence should be better developed. We should encourage non-violent movements in India.Please put an end to the fast of Sharmila in Manipur.An all inclusive development should be encouraged. The life of the planet and the dependent health of the whole humanity should not be sacrificed by the greed of a few. Dismantle all Mass destructive weapons. No more Nuclear plants.If we do not learn we ourselves will become victims of these violence.
Really a great challenging task done by some terrorist group. And now we can see how safe we Indians are in our home land. I don't know what is the reason of protecting some Terrorist, who had already found guilty. Do I pay my tax for creating new facilities for such people. I too believe that every one should be given a change to change what he had done in his past. But in turn of his one chance how many lives will our Govt. put on stake. I think and strongly believe that if we need to improve security of nation we just need to make one more protest to take all securities from ministers and their families. And then we will have a safe and better INDIA for COMMON INDIAN.
The photograph seems to be edited, kindly look at the bottom left, the indications are clear that few photographs have been merged to obtain this graphic.My suggestion is to remove it or block the area; few sceptics may question the truth about the blast and draw unnecessary conspiracy theories.
people need security not the terrorism. What indian govt is doing they only knows well . Tthis is the world of politics not the world of the humanism.
Only in a Indian news paper we can see an uncensored image like that. Of course its cruel, but what you have to spread among people is news, not terror.
4 lakhs for deceased families members, 2 lakhs for permanently disabled members? These politicians cant even survive with crores in their banks and keep looting and then they declare to give peanut amounts to victimised families whereas if its a sport theyll give a crore to each player...shame on indian govt and Ms Dikshit
Is human life is so cheap in India? The apathy of Government is bordering on negligence! It is so awful to find that there were no deterrents or not even any CCTVs any where in the vicinity, even when it was a place that was attacked not long ago!! For lesser events of this
nature, Governmets had fallen elsewhere!
I think better to declare a emergency suituation for atleast 3-5 years to remove bad eliments and keep our country under control from terrorism, bribes, etc.I humbly request congress to step down from power!
It is high time for a rethinking on the efficiency of the present Home Minister.His tenure didn't afford any safety and security in our vast nation.But the politicians should not rush up to play the blame game.It will be apt and appropriate if any senior official from our Military is inducted in the Union cabinet as our Home Minister.We do not doubt the integrity or sincerity of our Home Minister,but at the same time it is obvious that he is unable to guarantee a peaceful life at home.Let us wholeheartedly appeal to our
In the name of enhancing security whether national or public, the administration is guided by various agents of multinationals.proper audit of the requirements are not done.Instead a eyewash type evaluation of procured items are conducted. So what can we expect from such administration or its political leadership? Complete dismantling of Official Secrets Acts need to be abolished under supervision of a competent authority.
We expect some responsible reporting from the hindu. we request you, Please remove such images.
why would you put such a disturbing picture?Are you just that insensitive or its for desentization?The last thing we need right now is a fear campaign.
The Hindu says that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime but opines that such gruesome pictures deter terrorists and alert citizens. The paradox is obvious and hints at callous disregard for the dead and their kin.
Another bomb and the killers call them as HUJI with a word Islam, our faith embedded on it. Who gave these killers, these savage thugs to use our faith for their cowardly act? How long we are going to keep mum on seeing these savages using our faith freely to malign our community. Enough is enough, we, Muslims must come forward to make community policing in our localities, and suspicious activities must be reported to authorities. Use Friday prayer sermons to address these issues. We must do that to retain our credibility and to uphold the true nature of our faith. We cannot allow some crooks to hijack our faith. This is what Al-Quran says, “whosoever killeth a human being for other than man slaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if be had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had: saved the life of all mankind”(5:32). The word mentioned here is human being, not Hindu, Muslim, sikh or parsi…if we truly love Islam, HELP THE AUTHORITY to get these thugs to book. Make tangible efforts to crush these menaces once and for all. We must act; we cannot sit as silent spectators when bunch of devils are trying to rewrite our destiny.
I am a regular reader of Hindu since last 5 years. I like the newspaper, but I am disturbed by the double standard of the Hindu. on the one hand it publishes ghastly pictures of terror attack to show how some in-humane person butchered these innocent people, but on the other hand when it comes to punishing the culprits it advocates "No to death penalty. Is it not a gross injustice? Are only these terrorist (who are worse than animals) having human rights? what about human rights of these innocent citizens, their families, trauma they go through and the disturbance the whole nation goes through. I think this esteemed daily should reconsider its stand on "No to death penalty", particularly for terrorists.
You seem to have forgotten your ethics. you should not have posted such a photo on the very first page and rather any page in news papers. even all the visual media TV channels are not showing the actual picture and you put it on first page to see the first thing in morning!!! disgusting! In a family there are older people, there are heart patients and there are kids and more then that those who lost their dear ones, think of the wife and children of the half blown man, what would they feel. Don't ever think that putting such pictures would make you newspaper sell more! i always thought that your paper is the most balanced and sensible. sorry, you have lost faith of one of your reader!
sir, its my humble requet to The hindu is to please remove this picture.I think that these terror attack must be in 1% that cant be avoided.I want to thanks to yuvraaj Rahul Gandhi for so much thinking for our safety.
Thank you Mr. Hussain Abhubakr for asking Muslims to protect their faith from such barbaric acts by denouncing the criminals within their religion. I don't intend to hurt any of my Muslim brothers or sisters, but it is true that the average non Muslim Indian cannot help feeling that at times the Muslims in India are not doing enough to purge vermin within their fold who espouse such sinful ideologies. I would of course grant that there are bad elements within every religion. Let us all join hands together to protect our nation.
The Hindu publishes these gruesome pictures to show in-human face of terrorist, but when it comes to their ultimate punishment (death sentence) it advocates the human rights of these terrorists. kindly rethink your stand.
It has happened in the past, it is happening again, and it shall happen again in future as well- we simply do not have the vision to make our country safe as we do not place any value on the lives of our countrymen. It is only our politicians who cannot live with anything less than perfect security. We waste so much money on other things, why cannot we invest more money and resources into human and technological intelligence to find out and thwart the nefarious designs of terrorists? also, our handling of emergency situations is so pathetic that it defies description. We need to invest more in to educating our countrymen about first aid, pre-hospital trauma care etc, and ensure a world-class ambulance and medical system to deal with such cases- else life and limb may be lost unnecessarily.
We need our rulers to be held accountable for such glaring lapses of security. I dont know when we will actually be able to feel valued by our government.
As a leading news paper you should have refrained from publishing such gruesome pictures. After the article on Mr.arindham this is one of the things which has made me feel that hindu is losing its level of journalism.
Once again terror stroke Delhi, and police will be criticized.
But shouldn't we see the larger picture that what our police has been reduced to especially in politically sensitive Delhi. police is anything other than autonomous and professional.
Loyal police chief's are placed to cater to political whims rather than allowing police to act professionally. Commission after commission cried for police reform but no political party want to loose grip on police. Let us hope that now again supreme court will remind government of implementing its 2006 directives on police reforms.
I don't know why are people upset with this photo? This is the reality. Not showing it is not going to make the terror disappear. In fact it is important to show such photos so that people leading a luxurious lifestyle don't forget the harsh reality of life and death.
Hindu!--Take down that photograph! Now! That is so insensitive of you to post such a gruesome picture on your website. Show some sympathy to the families of those killed, and some respect to the dead.
I think the image is highly appropriate. People of India must wake up and smell the coffee (its getting late). Governance is at an all time low, and we are ruled by tycoons who are only interested in increasing their Swiss bank balances & little else. Covering up blasts by showing gentler images fails to shock an already inured society.
Why are people so uncomfortable in acknowledging that when a blast happens, bodies are torn off, and people die. It's not just those numbers in "Three people died, 19 injured", it's real people. I guess we need to wake up to the uncomfortable truth now. The photo's put here depict reality. This IS what happens. People don't go away just like that, it's a pathetic death and that's what the security system of our country has provided to these people. Only when we acknowledge that there's a problem, can we find a solution. You can't solve a problem which you are not willing to acknowledge.
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