Twin blasts bring back Delhi’s old fears

One of the persons injured in the Liberty blast, identified as Sitaram, died later at a city hospital.

The Union Cabinet, which held a late night meeting to assess the situation, was briefed by Delhi Police Commissioner K K Paul. The modus operandi, Paul told the Cabinet, suggested a militant strike as the explosions were almost simultaneous.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who strongly condemned the attack, will visit the injured tomorrow.

The explosions, which happened in short intervals after 8 pm, prompted the police to declare a state of high alert and tighten security at Delhi’s borders while the distributors rushed to pull out the movie from theatres. Similar alert has been sounded in other states as well.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and various Sikh organisations have been protesting against the movie, claiming that Jo bole so nihal was a phrase which could be used only inside a gurdwara or on the battlefield. The SGPC, the supreme religious body of the Sikhs, went a step ahead and insisted that the role of a Sikh character should be played by a Sikh, preferably an Amritdhari Sikh.

While there were protests on the day the movie was released, the twin blasts shocked the administration and police. Forensic experts who examined the site said the explosions could have been caused by improvised explosive devices, the one at Liberty being the more powerful one. The theatres are located less than five kilometres from each other—Liberty in Dev Nagar and Satyam in West Patel Nagar.

The explosive device that injured over 40 in Liberty was placed below a seat in the fifth row of the rear stall, police said. The impact left a deep crater and the false ceiling came crashing down. There was panic as smoke engulfed the auditorium and viewers scurried to safety.

At Satyam, the explosion took place in the women’s toilet on the ground floor just after the interval. The false ceiling of a Subway outlet that shares a wall with the toilet collapsed. At least eight persons, including two women and two children, were injured. One of the injured children was hit by a concrete slab that fell.

The injured were rushed to nearby hospitals including Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Bara Hindu Rao, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

As many as 17 of the injured were admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital while 12 were admitted to Lady Hardinge Medical College. Two of the seriously injured were admitted to the intensive care units of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Jeevan Mala hospital.