NEW DELHI, July 26: Two persons were killed and four injured when a powerful bomb exploded in a bus at Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT) this morning.The bomb, kept in the rear of a Haryana Roadways bus, exploded at 11.35 a.m., a few minutes after the bus, which was coming from Safidon in Haryana, had entered ISBT. The blast was so powerful that the roof of the bus was all but ripped apart. Four other buses, parked close by, were damaged.Fortunately, more than 10 passengers had alighted from the bus a few minutes before the blast. Only the driver and the conductor were in the bus at the time. The driver of the bus was looking for a place to park the bus near platform 4.The police suspect that the bomb could have been placed in the bus at Safidon. Describing it as a high-intensity explosive, police officials said that it could be RDX, PETN or TNT. They added that they were in touch with the Haryana police and the involvement of a terrorist group had not been ruled out. However, no one has claimed responsibility so far.The deceased has been identified as Rameshwari, 55, and Kasir Ahmed, 25. Rameshwari had come with her son Ram Kishen, 25, from Faridabad and had just alighted from another bus. She and her son were passing by when a piece of metal struck her on the head. Kasir was a coconut vendor and had also received severe head injuries. Both Rameshwari and Kasir were first taken to Bara Hindu Rao Hospital, but since the CAT scan was not working, they were shifted to RML. Both of them later succumbed to their injuries at RML.Others who were injured are the driver of the bus Bhim Sen, conductor of another bus, Jai Bhagwan, Sanjay (28) of Ambala and Ram Kishen. All were taken to Bara Hindu Rao and are out of danger.Ramesh Kumar, who has a food stall nearby, said: ``There was a loud sound and we thought that a tyre had burst. It was only when we saw thick smoke that we realised that there had been a blast.''The impact of the blast scattered pieces of glass and aluminium in 200 metre radius around the site. Several windows in the ISBT building also shattered. Senior police officials, including the Commissioner of Police V.N. Singh, the bomb disposal squad along with sniffer dogs and experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) visited the spot.This was the third blast in the city this year. One person was killed and 50 people were injured on January 9, 50 people were injured in a blast near police headquarters while two were injured in another explosion at Kailash colony in South Delhi on June 27.
