At least 15 dead in New Delhi blasts, officials say

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From Sara Sidner and and Harmeet Singh
CN*
     
NEW DELHI, India (CN*) -- A string of explosions ripped through busy marketplaces Saturday in New Delhi, killing at least 15 people and injuring at least 50, a police spokesman said.

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CN*-IBN, CN*'s sister network in India, said it received an e-mail from the Muslim militant group Indian Mujahedeen warning of an impending strike.

The e-mail came about five minutes after the first blast.

At least five explosions ripped through the Karol Bagh market, Kailash Market and Connaught Place -- a popular tourist destination, Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said.

Two other bombs found near a movie theater and near a park in the Connaught Place area were defused, he said.

A witness said one of the bombs at Connaught Place was hidden near a public trash can at the market.

The force of the blast blew a small vehicle from one side of the street to the other, he said.

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"It was terrifying," he recalled, adding that the small automobile rickshaw had blood all over it.  Watch the chaotic aftermath »

Bhagat refused comment about who might have carried out the attack. No arrests have been made, he said.

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Indian Home Minister Shri Shivraj Patil blamed the attack on "anti-national elements" who he said have been trying to disturb the peace and create panic in parts of the country.

"The government will continue to deal firmly with such elements," Patel said in a statement. "I am confident that security agencies will soon be able to get to the bottom of these incidents and the culprits will be brought to book."

Indian Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for 17 explosions in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on July 26, killing 49 people and wounding more than 100.

The blasts occurred within about an hour of each other within a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius.


Indian Mujahedeen also claimed responsibility in May for near-simultaneous bomb attacks that killed 63 people in the northwest city of Jaipur.

In the Jaipur claim, the group declared "open war" against India in retaliation for what it said were 60 years of Muslim persecution and the country's support of U.S. policies.