The Hindu : Front Page : Toll in Ahmedabad serial blasts rises to 46

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 28, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Toll in Ahmedabad serial blasts rises to 46

Manas Dasgupta

SIMI activist arrested; two cars with explosives seized in Surat; live bombs defused in Ahmedabad

— Photos: AFP, PTI

The aftermath: A day after the serial bomb explosions in Ahmedabad that killed 46 people, a member of the Bomb Disposal Squad defuses a live bomb found in a garbage container in the city. At right, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi consoles a boy injured in the blasts, at the LG Hospital on Saturday night.

AHMEDABAD: The Army staged flag marches in sensitive areas here on Sunday to restore a sense of security and confidence among the people, as the death toll in Saturday’s terror attack went up to 46.

In Gandhinagar, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi convened an emergency meeting of the Cabinet, the second in 12 hours, and decided to form a four-member special coordination committee. Headed by the Principal Secretary, Home, the committee will coordinate inputs with other States which had faced similar terror attacks.

The committee would also study the materials available with the Centre and its intelligence agencies about terrorist activities in different parts of the country to assist the CID (Crime) investigating Saturday’s serial blasts in Ahmedabad.

The police believe that the diamond and art silk city of Surat, the second major commercial centre in the State after Ahmedabad, may have escaped the jaws of death and destruction as two abandoned cars — one with live explosives and another with ammunition — were seized in different parts of the city on Sunday. Closure of cinemas and shopping malls in the heavily populated city was ordered after the police defused a huge bomb found in an abandoned bag near a hospital on the City Light Road and recovered the cars abandoned at Punamgaon and Randel, Varacha Road localities.

Police said gelatin sticks, timers, ammonium nitrate powder, tiffin boxes and other materials were found in one abandoned car which the locals said was lying there for couple of days. The materials were enough to manufacture about eight to 10 powerful crude bombs, the kind of devices believed to had been used in the serial blasts.

Responding to an appeal from the police, the people in Surat by and large stayed indoors despite it being a Sunday. This was to avoid large gatherings that could be easy targets for terrorists.

In view of the high alert, night shows in all the cinemas in Rajkot, Bhavnagar and several other cities and towns were suspended for Sunday.

Early in the morning, two live bombs were recovered from a garbage can near a vegetable market in Hatkshwar locality in Maninagar in Ahmedabad, where the first of the 17 blasts occurred on Saturday evening.

The special bomb squad was summoned and the bombs defused.

The police said the timers of the bombs had not been set properly. The bombs could have caused extensive damage. Another live bomb was defused near a gate of a textile mill at Santhej on the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar highway after midnight. One bomb was found and defused in Kalol, also an industrial town near Gandhinagar.

Ahmedabad Joint Police Commissioner Asish Bhatia said an activist of the Banned SIMI, Abdul Halim, who was wanted in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots, was arrested during the combing operation in the city.

The State government has announced a compensation of Rs.5 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed in the Ahmedabad blasts and Rs. 50,000 to each of those injured. Mr. Modi assured the injured that they would be given the best possible treatment.

He appealed to the people to keep peace and cooperate with the authorities to maintain law and order.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page