Fear of blasts keeps shoppers away

A day after the blast at Sarai market in Mehrauli, shopkeepers and shoppers at major markets in South Delhi said the fear of another blast has gripped the city.

A day after the blast at Sarai market in Mehrauli, shopkeepers and shoppers at major markets in South Delhi said the fear of another blast has gripped the city.

Serial blasts in major markets exactly two weeks ago and the blast on Saturday, shopkeepers said, has ensured shoppers stay away. 8220;The police might claim they have stepped up security but the fact that there was another blast in the Capital within two weeks says it all; we are all afraid,8221; Rajesh Kharbanda, a shopkeeper at Saket, said.

Kharbanda was in Mehrauli when the blast took place and claims he saw policemen at the spot shed tears seeing the body of the nine-year-old boy who died on the spot.

8220;The impact on the boy was such that shredded body parts could be seen littered around,8221; Kharbanda said.

The boy, Santosh Kumar, had picked up the bomb kept in a tiffin box and tried to return it to the motorcyclists who dropped it there.

Vijay Jolly, MLA from Saket, said: 8220;People will lose their sensitivities in such a scenario, when everything lying around seems like a bomb. People are living in constant fear.8221;

Jolly claimed that CCTV cameras installed in Saket by the Delhi Police have not been working for many months now. 8220;Concerned shop owners have even started questioning the visibility of policing in the busy markets,8221; Jolly said.

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At the upscale M-Block Market in GK-I, which witnessed two of the five blasts that struck Delhi on September 13, shopkeepers said security has been tightened and that the area had been looking secure till the blast on Saturday. 8220;That all blasts in the past years have taken place on weekends and many blasts having occurred within two weeks has deterred shoppers from venturing out,8221; Rajesh Sharda, president of the M-block Market Traders Welfare Association, said.

8220;Fear of a blast is visible; crowds at the market have thinned down,8221; he said.