NEW DELHI, April 14: Thirteen people were injured after two crude bombs exploded in Delhi’s Jama Masjid when it was packed with worshippers for Friday prayers.
Prominent Kashmiri leaders condemned the incident, but said there was nothing to indicate the explosions were linked to a series of blasts in Srinagar that killed at least five people on Friday.
“The Hurriyat and all peace-loving people of Jammu and Kashmir condemn the attack inside the Jama Masjid,” APHC chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said. “There is nothing to indicate these are linked to the serial blasts in Srinagar today,” he told Dawn.
The Mirwaiz said he was on a round of districts near the Line of Control where he had been addressing gatherings of Kashmiris who included Hindus and Sikhs along with Muslims.
“This could be an attempt by people to whip up Hindu-Muslim communalism,” said JKLF chief Yasin Malik. “It doesn’t make any sense otherwise.”
“Thirteen people are in hospital,” said Delhi’s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, whose Congress Party leads a coalition government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the prime minister appealed for calm while opposition leader Lal Kishan Advani, on a cross-country tour to drum up support for his Bharatiya Janata Party, called for a thorough probe into the incident.
The head of the 17th century Mughal mosque, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, claimed the blasts were the handiwork of people interested in fomenting Hindu-Muslim bad blood. “This is the first such incident in the 400 years of the mosque’s history,” he said.
The two blasts occurred within 30 minutes of each other at the Jama Masjid, said Police Commissioner K.K. Paul.
Witnesses showed pieces of the crudely assembled device to explain that nothing deadlier was involved.
The mosque was evacuated and police bomb disposal squads combed the complex, Mr Paul said. Police went on high alert in Hyderabad and Lucknow.
It was not known who was behind the explosions, which were caused by at least two bombs planted in different parts of the complex. Police allowed people to go back to the mosque for Maghrib prayers and hundreds of worshippers were back in two hours afterward.
Most of them stopped near the site of the blasts to stare at the red sandstone floor of the mosque, which had turned black from the blast’s impact.
