By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
NEW DELHI, July 28 -- Lalit Mohan Joshi, an Indian businessman, was delivering a batch of jeweled slippers to a merchant one evening when he was approached by a stranger. The stranger asked him to watch a plastic bag, which appeared to hold a pressure cooker.
Moments after the man disappeared into the night, the bag detonated, killing 50 people, injuring 155 others and setting fire to New Delhi's congested Sarojini Nagar market during what had been a festive holiday weekend in the fall of 2005. Joshi's skin melted like wax in the inferno; 90 percent of his body was covered in third-degree burns.
He was hospitalized for 45 days, had two excruciating skin-grafting operations and was out of work for six months. All the while, he waited for the police to interview him. But they never showed up.
Now, following back-to-back bombings in Bangalore and Ahmedabad -- on Friday and Saturday, respectively -- Joshi is among the many Indians who are voicing frustration over such attacks and the failure of the government to find those responsible for them. The bombings almost always remain unsolved, with culprits still at large and the victims' broken lives and painful stories long forgotten.
An estimated 3,674 people died in terrorist attacks in India from January 2004 to March 2007, making the subcontinent second only to Iraq in deaths from terrorist attacks during the same period, according to the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington, the U.S. agency that analyzes intelligence pertaining to terrorism. The blasts in the western city of Ahmedabad over the weekend added 49 to that total. Two died in the Bangalore attack.
"It's very maddening," said Joshi, noting that, while 25 security cameras had been installed in Sarojini Nagar market immediately after the blast, some were old and none of them worked. Requests to replace them were ignored, merchant leaders said.
Rishi Sharma, 32, another victim of the 2005 market blast, said he couldn't watch TV over the weekend for fear of seeing footage from the attack in Ahmedabad.
"It's like reliving the experience again and again," he said.
There have been 15 bombings since the one that injured Sharma. In many cases, authorities have pointed the finger vaguely in the direction of Islamist fighters in Pakistan and Bangladesh. But the failure of authorities to identify specifically who was behind the attacks has eroded many Indians' faith in the country's investigative agencies.
"Nation on Edge! Govt. Clueless," said a headline on Monday in the popular tabloid paper Mail Today. Editorials in other newspapers have been filled with calls on the government to be more vigilant in its investigations.
While acknowledging the challenges of finding the guilty in a sprawling, chaotic country of 1.1 billion people, terrorism experts say the investigations so far have fallen short of their expectations.
"There is just no excuse for this," said B. Raman, a retired intelligence officer. "These are attacks on ordinary life. The bombs are hidden in lunch boxes, in bags, in bicycles. We can fight this. But there doesn't seem to be much serious will to really get tough on terror."
On Monday, a somber Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the blast sites in Ahmedabad and was seen at the bedside of the injured. "These terrorist acts are aimed at destroying our social fabric," Singh said. "We will rise to the challenge. I am confident we will be able to defeat these forces."
Cities across the country were put on high alert. The government deployed an extra 3,000 security personnel in New Delhi, and security was tightened in the southern state of Kerala after a phone call to a TV channel warned that the state would be targeted by terrorists.
India has long experienced bomb blasts in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir and in the country's northeast. But attacks targeting civilians outside such long-standing conflict zones have become more common and should put increasing pressure on the government, experts said.
In August, 40 people were killed after a pair of synchronized bombs tore through a fast-food restaurant and amusement park in Hyderabad. In May, in the pink-walled city of Jaipur, a string of simultaneous blasts targeted a popular Hindu temple and marketplaces, killing 80 and injuring 200.
On Monday, the Sarojini Nagar market had tightened security as crowds thronged shops hawking baby clothes and bangles, sneakers and saris. Families lined up to buy afternoon snacks of sweets and fresh juice. Rickshaws whizzed through. Heart-shaped balloons were for sale alongside strings of marigolds. It could have been any Indian market. But the scars of the 2005 attack were everywhere.
Out of a frayed plastic bag, Ashok Randhawa, president of the Sarojini Nagar mini-market association, took out the worn photographs of those who had died during the 2005 blast: flirty newlyweds, a family on vacation at the Taj Mahal, a proud, well-dressed Delhi University student, a chubby toddler straddling his plastic four-wheel bike.
Among them was Karan Poddar, a 7-year-old boy with big ears, who loved to sing. In her living room not far from the market, his mother, Indu, recalled that her husband had taken Karan to the market that night. It was right before Diwali, the annual Indian festival of lights, and the family was in a festive mood after a long day of shopping.
"The blast was like a rocket," recalled Vinod Poddar, 42, Karan's father, who lost the lower half of his right leg in the attack.
The Poddar family said they may never stop mourning Karan. But the last few days have been particularly painful, with the carnage of the blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore.
"I knew exactly how those victims felt, and it's paining my head," Indu Poddar said, her eyes moistening. "At points, the coverage is just too much. I had to turn it off."
Karan's picture hangs in the center living room, draped with fresh flowers. For his family, Diwali, the biggest Hindu festival observed in north India, is now a troubled time. They hold a memorial service, softly praying with other victims from the market blast.
Visiting with the family, Randhawa, the market president, told them: "If the government can wake up, there is still time to make a difference."
As he spoke about the need for better investigations, Karan's mother kissed her son's photo, quietly stroking the picture of his face.
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