politics | india politics

India appears to be one of the softest targets in the world for terrorists. On two consecutive days, they have struck in two top Indian cities—Bangalore and Ahmedabad—triggering widespread fears of more such attacks. As a sense of helplessness grips the country, security and intelligence specialists say India is increasingly being drawn into the epicentre of terror.
On Saturday evening, Ahmedabad was rocked by 17 precisely planned blasts in crowded markets, bus stands, residential areas and hospitals, leaving 29 dead (at 11 pm)
and around 100 injured, some of them seriously. The nature of the blasts were similar to those in Bangalore on Friday — quartz timer devices, microprocessors and ammonium nitrate were found at blast sites in both cities — indicating that the attacks were the handiwork of terrorists drawn from the same pool. Significantly, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s constituency of Maninagar was rocked by four blasts.
The blasts which took place between 6.45 and 9.00 pm caught the police unawares even as the state was under red alert following the Bangalore blasts on. Compared to Bangalore, the Ahmedabad blasts were of higher intensity.
The last three terror attacks occurred in BJP-ruled states — Rajasthan, Karnataka and now Gujarat. Security experts warned that Bhopal in MP could be the next target. Like on the eve of the Jaipur and UP court blasts, a group calling itself Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the blasts in an email.
All the blasts, except the one at Sarkhej, took place in the crowded eastern neighbourhoods of the city, within a radius of 5 km. The Civil Hospital and LG Hospital campuses were the last to get bombed, about 40 minutes after the first round of blasts.
Most of the bombs were planted behind bicycles in tiffins contained in blue polythene bags while the bombs in the hospitals were placed in automobiles. The bombs were packed with timer devices and microprocessors. Preliminary reports suggest ammonium nitrate was used in the bombs.
Eyewitnesses said multiple explosives were planted within a short range, which went off within an interval of a few seconds. The idea was to attract people to the site with the first blast and then explode the other with more devastating effect. “One bomb went off from a bag on one cycle carrier and as people collected, another one went off within 15-20 seconds on another cycle carrier’’, said Bhushan Bhatt, a municipal corporator. One of the bombs went off near a bus in a Hindu pocket of the otherwise Muslim-dominated Sarkhej ripping one side of the bus completely. The busy diamond market in Bapunagar here was also made a target. At Maninagar, the bombs were planted in busy vegetable market and bus stops.