VARANASI, INDIA, March 8, 2006: Security forces deployed to holy sites across India on Wednesday after terrorist bombings killed 20 people in Hinduism’s holiest city, sparking anger among its residents and worry about possible widespread sectarian violence. A mob of angry Hindus briefly blocked the motorcade of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, when he visited the scene of Tuesday’s bombings at a crowded railway station and temple in the northern city of Varanasi on the holy Ganges River. Yadav, whose party champions the cause of Muslims and lower-caste Hindus, inspected the site under heavy protection while protesters shouted slogans against him. Varanasi, meanwhile, was largely shut down by a strike called by Hindu nationalist groups to protest the bombings. Markets and schools were closed and vehicles kept off the roads, but there were no signs of violence in reaction to the attacks. “There is peace now but what happened yesterday is horrible,” grocer Jugal Kishore Chaurasiya said Wednesday. “There is fear but I am proud that even after this act of terrorism there has been amity between the two sides. We are trying to maintain peace.”
Cities across India were on high alert Wednesday, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for calm. Soldiers and police were sent to guard prominent religious pilgrimage spots across this country of one billion people, which is about 84 per cent Hindu but also has a sizable Muslim minority and millions of followers of many other religions. Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the temple bomb was placed in a pressure cooker and detonated by a timing device. Yashpal Singh, the Uttar Pradesh police chief, said the attackers targeted the temple on a day when special prayers are held to cause maximum damage. “The bomb was placed near a tree where women usually sit and take rest,” Singh said. “Moreover, a wedding was just over when the blast took place. Had the blast taken place a few minutes earlier, the toll could have been more.” Investigators and sketch artists were interviewing a young man who may have seen the bombers. Two men came to the young man’s shop in Varanasi’s Gaudaliya market and left a bag there promising to return later. When they did not return, he called the police, who notified the bomb squad. They defused the bomb inside the bag, a federal intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to the news media.
Although officials have not yet said who they believed was behind Tuesday’s attacks, many in India clearly suspected Muslim extremists. Hours after the bombings, the Uttar Pradesh state anti-terrorist squad said it had killed a suspected Islamic militant, but Pandey said it was not known whether he was linked to the bombings. In the capital, New Delhi, police also shot two suspected militants as they were entering the city in a car early Wednesday, said Karnal Singh, joint commissioner of police. It was also unclear if they were tied to the Varanasi attacks.