NEW DELHI, Sept 7, (Agencies): A powerful bomb hidden in a briefcase ripped through a crowd of people waiting to enter a New Delhi courthouse Wednesday, killing 11 people and wounding scores more in the deadliest attack in India’s capital in nearly three years.
An al-Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility, though government officials said it was too early to name a suspect. The attack outside the High Court came despite a high alert across the city and renewed doubts about India’s ability to protect even its most important institutions despite overhauling security after the 2008 Mumbai siege.
“Have we become so vulnerable that terrorist groups can almost strike at will?” opposition lawmaker Arun Jaitley asked in Parliament. The bomb left a deep crater on the road and shook the courthouse, sending lawyers and judges fleeing outside.
“There was smoke everywhere. People were running. People were shouting. There was blood everywhere. It was very, very scary,” said lawyer Sangeeta Sondhi, who was parking her car near the gate when the bomb exploded.
The government rallied Indians to remain strong in the face of such attacks.
“We will never succumb to the pressure of terrorists,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said during a visit to neighboring Bangladesh. “This is a long war in which all political parties and all the people of India will have to stand united so that this scourge of terrorism is crushed.”
The bomb exploded about 10:14 am near a line of more than 100 people waiting at a reception counter for passes to enter the court building to have their cases heard. Officials said the blast killed 11 people and wounded 59 others. Their identities were not available, but no judges were among the victims.
People ran to the blast site to assist the injured, piling them into three-wheeled taxis to take them to the hospital. Ambulances and forensic teams rushed to the scene, along with sniffer dogs and a bomb disposal unit, apparently checking for any further explosives.
Meanwhile, Indian Indian federal investigators said they were studying an email purportedly from an Islamist militant group active in South Asia, claiming responsibility for Wednesday’s bomb blast at Delhi’s High Court.
The email, sent to Indian media, claimed to be from the Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI), which has been linked to previous attacks on Indian soil.
“We own the responsibility for today’s blast at Delhi high court,” the message said.
It warned that other court facilities, including India’s Supreme Court, would be targeted unless authorities repealed the death sentence on a man convicted of conspiring in a 2001 militant attack on India’s parliament.
Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri, was sentenced to death in 2004 and is currently on death row.
S.C. Sinha, Director General of India’s National Investigation Agency, said investigators were studying the HUJI claim.
In the meantime, Pakistan’s president and prime minister condemned the deadly bomb attack on New Delhi’s High Court on Wednesday and said they hoped those responsible would be brought to justice.
A foreign office statement attributed to President Asif Al Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack on arch-foe India.
“The Pakistani leadership has expressed their deepest sympathies to the families of the victims of the bombing, to the government and people of India.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was “appalled” by the deadly bomb attack on New Delhi’s High Court on Wednesday and pledged Britain would stand by India in combating terrorism.