Pink City Rocked by Serial Blasts

Terror struck Jaipur-The Pink City today,seven near-simultaneous blasts have rocked the city of Jaipur at 7:35 PM on Tuesday evening. and its feared that killed at least 50 people and wounded 200 others in the northwestern city of Jaipur Tuesday night, government and local officials told.It is for the first time that the Pink City is coming under terror radar.

Scores of wounded people were ferried to several hospitals soon after the low-intensity blasts hit at Tripolia Bazar, where large number of devotees turned up at a Hanuman temple, Johari Bazar, Manas Chowk, Badi Choupal and Choti Choupal in the walled part of the city.Police sources said that 15 persons perished in the attack that triggered a stampede in the affected areas in the walled city which are frequented by foreign tourists. Six women were among the dead.Bicycles were strewn about the streets near some of the blast sites, with pools of blood nearby.

There has been no claim of responsibility, but Indian government officials - including Home Minister Shriprakash Jaiswal - were quick to label it a terrorist attack.
According to sources Bangladesh-based Harkut-ul-Jehadi Islami(HuJI) may be behind Jaipur blasts.

The seven explosions started at about 7:30 p.m. (1400 GMT, 1000 ET) and the remaining blasts were set off in quick succession within 12 minutes of each other, police said.
An eighth bomb was defused, according to H.G. Raghavendra, a Jaipur city official. He described all the bombs as "medium intensity."

The bombs exploded within about 500 meters (0.3 mile) of each other in Jaipur's old city, which is frequented by tourists.

One blast struck near Hanuman Temple, which was crowded with Hindus who worship Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, on Tuesdays.Another struck near a market area inside Jaipur's walled city where tourists and locals frequent restaurants and shops.

The Union Home Ministry reviewed the situation while Mumbai and Delhi were put on high alert. Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel were deployed in Jaipur to help deal with the situation as security was beefed up. One of the blasts took place in a car and another near a handloom shop in Kotwali area of the city, home department sources said.

Blood was splattered at the scene of the blasts which tossed some of the victims several feet up. The sources ruled out the use of RDX in the carefully orchestrated low-intensity explosions which were suspected to have been set off from cycles in areas including near Hawa Mahal which are frequented by domestic and foreign tourists. The intelligence agencies have already started analysing STD and international calls made out of Jaipur during the last 48 hours.

First Pictures of The Pink City Torn Apart(Viewers Discretion Advised)

Yeah sad news , R.I.P the victims. Just proves that no city in India is safe anymore

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Bluffmaster's Signature:

No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. No one needs a smile as much as a person who fails to give one.

Condolences to the families all those who lost their lives

Just yesterday it was in the news that infiltration was up. The choice of Jaipur is pretty clear. Toursit hub. Will scare the tourists away.

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Safin's Signature:


"You force me to do terrible things that...I enjoy doing anyway!"

First Pictures of The Pink City Torn Apart
(Viewers Discretion Advised)

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knoughtyd's Signature:

Curfew imposed in Jaipur, 8 detained for questioning

A curfew has been imposed in the old city in Jaipur in western India after a series of bomb blasts killed at least 80 and left nearly 200 wounded.The bombs went off near historic monuments in the crowded old city on Tuesday evening.No group has admitted planting bombs in Jaipur. It is not yet clear what the motive for attacking the city might be.

The curfew began at 0900 (0300 GMT) on Wednesday and is expected to last till the evening.The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Jaipur says that the old city is completely deserted apart from journalists and policemen moving around.The bustling old city has been cordoned off by the police for investigation. Its shops will remain closed on Wednesday.

The areas under curfew are Lal Kothi, Adarsh Nagar, Transport Nagar, Manak Chowk, Subhash Chowk, Ram Ganj, Galta Gate, Brahmpuri, Bhatta Basti, Kotwali, Nahargarh, Sanjay Circle, Jalubpura and Hasanpura Chowki in Sadar area.However, funeral processions have been exempted from the purview of the curfew.

Meanwhile, eight persons have been picked up for questioning in connection with the blasts even as investigations pointed out to the involvement of Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia (HUJI). The eight included a man who was injured in the explosions and a rickshaw puller, police said on Wednesday.Preliminary examination of the blast site indicated the possibility of ammonium nitrate being planted in new cycles and filled with ball bearings and small iron pipes to act as splinters, sources said.

The first blast took place at 7.20pm on Tuesday in the crowded Johari Bazaar and within 15 minutes seven more blasts occurred in adjoining areas in the walled city — near the Hanuman Mandir, which was milling with devotees, near Hawa Mahal, at Badi Chaupad, Tripolia Bazar and Chandpole.

Within minutes, the entire market was a picture of total chaos. People ran screaming, jumping over dead bodies and severed limbs, skirting mangled rickshaws and damaged cars. The piercing wail of ambulance sirens replaced the firecrackers that would go off every other day in Jaipur to celebrate its victorious Rajasthan Royals T20 team.

Terrorists displaying the telltale tactics of Lashkar-e-Taiba and SIMI struck with bombs planted on cycles and cycle-rickshaws. In the past three years, this is the 21st terror attack outside Jammu & Kashmir. Chief minister Vasundhara Raje said, "We will not tolerate this."

"I heard a deafening noise and I thought it was a [gas] cylinder blast," Hemanth Modi said.

Medical authorities have appealed for blood donations for the injured.

The Jaipur attack might have been worse had three unexploded bombs not been defused in the walled city area. Another bomb was defused in the upmarket Raja Park area, triggering fresh fears. Mercifully, the city was keeping calm.

Indian President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attacks and the prime minister appealed for calm.

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knoughtyd's Signature:

A little-known outfit, Indian Mujahideen, has claimed responsibility for carrying out the fatal blasts in Jaipur on Tuesday. And to buttress its claim, it sent video clips to the media of a cycle strapped with a bag that it claimed held the bomb..
As cops groped for clues to crack the serial blasts in Jaipur, the mysterious video of a brand new cycle added a new twist to the investigations. While such claims in the aftermath of a major terror attack are not uncommon and have even been used by the real culprits to throw the investigators off the trail, what lends credence to the claim in this instance is that terrorist groups used an identical email ID to announce the blasts in Uttar Pradesh in November 2006.

The video was sent to the media in the capital by Indian Mujahideen late on Wednesday evening. It mentioned the number — 129489 — etched on the frame of the cycle shown in the clip. The Mujahideen claimed that the cycle was the one that was used for the explosion at Kotwali near Choti Chaupad.

In the case of the UP blasts, the email was sent from an internet cafe in New Delhi’s Shakarpur locality half an hour before the explosives went off in Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow.

The ID used this time is marginally different. While the ID used for claiming the UP blasts was "guru_alhindi@yahoo.fr", this time the ID is "guru_alhindi_jaipur@yahoo.co.uk". Tuesday’s mail came with three attachments of videos showing the cycles strapped with bags that apparently had the bombs.

The sensational development is sure to get the investigators focus more closely on the involvement of HuJI (Harkat-ul-Jehad-Al-Islami), a Deobandi outfit which has grown beyond its base in Bangaldesh to strike Indian cities at will. The UP blasts were engineered to punish lawyers who had thrashed the HuJI suspects arrested for earlier blasts in the state, and had vowed not to represent them during the trial.

The choice of the tag Indian Mujahideen also ties in with efforts to camouflage the foreign roots of jihadi terror and present it as a homegrown phenomenon.

Like in the earlier instance, Indian Mujahideen threatened an "open war against India" unless the country stopped supporting the US and UK on international issues.

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knoughtyd's Signature:

This is sad. Now all the peaceful cities will be targeted.

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Agnel's Signature: