08 December,2010 07:30 AM IST | | A Correspondent
Two-year-old killed and over 35 injured as low-intensity blast ripped through crowd of devotees during evening aarti on banks of Ganga
Terror struck this holy town when a low-intensity explosion tore apart a horde of devotees at the bathing ghat on the banks of the Ganga during evening prayers, killing a two-year-old girl and injuring around 25 persons, including a couple of foreigners.
Terror outfit Indian Mujahideen(IM) claimed responsibility for the blast in e-mails sent to media houses and said it "attributed" the attack to the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992.
Security officials inspect the site of the blast at a ghat in Varanasi yesterday. Over 35 people were injured as the low-intensity IED went off during the evening prayers.
Home Secretary G K Pillai said the government believes that the blast, which also led to a stampede, was a terror strike.
Some people were injured in the stampede, police said. The girl, identified as Sarita Sharma, was with her mother for the prayers. She died at Marwari hospital after the blast, according to IG (Varanasi) R P Singh. She was around two years, he said.
It was not immediately known whether she suffered injuries in the explosion or in the stampede.
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The blast occurred at around 6.20 pm when thousands of devotees and some foreign tourists had assembled at the Dashaswamedh ghat for having darshan of the Ganga Arti ritual, police sources said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for calm. Several cities including the national capital were put on high alert. Additional Director General (Law and Order) Brijlal said that the blast took place due to some explosive material kept on the stairs of the ghat.
Pillai said that between "20 to 25 persons" are currently injured. An Italian and a French national were among the foreigners injured. But police said 30 to 35 persons may have been injured. The injured have been admitted to district hospitals.
"According to the information that we have, it was a low intensity blast which occurred around 6.20 pm," Pillai said in New Delhi. But Secretary (Internal Security) U K Bansal said the explosion was a "medium intensity" blast.
Official sources in New Delhi said that an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was recovered from a metal dustbin at the site of the blast. Bomb disposal squads were also rushed to the spot. Eyewitnesses said a loud noise, which shook some nearby buildings as well, was heard when the explosion occurred.
Additional District Magistrate Atal Kumar Rai said he had no information on reports of live bombs being recovered from the blast spot.
Minor injuries
A French national named Rachael (44), who was injured by splinters, has been discharged from hospital following treatment, City Magistrate Srinath Shukla said.
Medical Emergency Officer Dr R K Singh of Kabir Chaura hospital in the city said there were 13 injured persons admitted at the hospital, including three who were seriously injured.
Italian national Alexandeo Mantello (52), Pune resident Meera (35) and Kaushlesh (18) from Varanasi, said to be critically injured have been shifted to other hospitals, Singh said.
(Inputs by Debarati Palit)
Attacks on religious sites
March 2006: Twin bombings at a train station and a temple in Varanasi kill 20.
May 7, 2006: 20 people were killed and several injured when two blasts rocked the Sankatmochan Temple in Varanasi.
September 8, 2006: 37 people were killed and 56 were seriously injured when three bombs concealed on cycles went off near a mosque in Malegaon after Friday prayers.
May 18, 2007: 11 people died when an explosion occurred outside the Mecca mosque in Hyderabad.
October 11, 2007: At least two people were killed and 20 others injured when a blast ripped through the sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer.
September 19, 2010: The shootout incident occurred near the historic Jama Masjid mosque on Sunday morning in which two Taiwanese nationals were injured after a tourist bus they were travelling in was fired upon by two unidentified persons riding a motorbike.
More Attacks
Terror outfit Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the blast in e-mails sent to media houses and said it "attributed" the attack to the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992.u00a0The outfit also threatened to carry out more attacks in the country.
Eyewitness says
We were performing the evening aarti when suddenly we heard this blast and there was confusion all over the place. The intensity of the blast wasu00a0 so high that glass windows of nearby houses and shops were shattered.
Hanuman Yadav, Manager, Aarti Committee who was present at the blast site
VHP demands ban on entry of non-Hindus in Kashi
Dubbing the explosion in Varanasi as "a heinous act of terrorism", Vishwa Hindu Parishad yesterday demanded that the holy city of Kashi be accorded the status of a "protected heritage site" and that entry of non-Hindus into it be banned.
"It was a Tuesday when the Sankatmochan Temple was rocked by a bomb explosion in 2006 and now there is a blast at a spot where the Ganga arati was underway", VHP International Secretary General Praveen Togadia said. He further added that the government has been "defaming Hindus by coining phrases like Hindu terrorism".
Blast from the past
The blast occuredu00a0 at a site barely 2 km away from the Sankatmochan Temple that was targeted by terrorists in 2006.
Some of the victims were reported to have sustained injuries by metal pellets.
Varanasi, which was rocked by twin blasts on March 7, 2006, in which 20 persons were killed, has been under constant threat from various terror outfits like the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Security personnel had then recovered four live bombs from a Dashaswamedh ghat.
