49 killed in New Delhi bomb blasts

At least 49 people were feared dead after a series of explosions shook New Delhi today.

The blasts tore through markets packed with shoppers ahead of a forthcoming Hindu festival, officials said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged people to remain calm and said in a statement that “India will win the battle against terrorism”.

The statement was read on CNN by one of his top advisers, Sanjaya Baru, who said the explosions were the work of terrorists, but did not say who the government thought was behind them.

At least 60 people were injured in just one of the three blasts, in the Paharganj distirct, said a police spokesman. Many more are feared injured.

Police declared a state of emergency and all the markets in the city were ordered closed.

“I appeal to you. Please disperse from the markets and go back to your families,” Home Affairs Minister Shivraj Patil said in a televised address.

Patil said 39 people were killed in the blast in the Sarojini Nagar market. Jagtar Singh, a spokesman for the Delhi fire department, said seven people were killed in the first blast just before 6 pm in the crowded central neighbourhood of Paharganj, and three were killed on a bus in the Govindpuri neighbourhood. He had no further details.

The explosions came days before the festival of Diwali, a major Hindu holiday where families gather to exchange gifts, light candles and celebrate with fireworks.

Witnesses said the blasts rocked entire neighbourhoods.

Babu Lal Khandelwal, a shop owner in the central Paharganj area of small shops and inexpensive hotels often filled with foreign backpackers, said the blast knocked him to the ground.

“There was black smoke everywhere. When the smoke was cleared and I could see, there were people bloody and people lying in the street,” Khandelwal said.

About an hour later, investigators were standing around a small crater filled with debris, about 10ft from a string of shops.

The initial blast took place in the main Paharganj market in the early evening, when it was filled with shoppers. Minutes later, a blst shook the market in Sarojini Nagar, another popular market filled with everything from knock-off designer clothing to kitchen crockery.

The Indian government faces opposition from dozens of militant organizations - from tiny fringe organizations to well-armed Kashmiri rebel groups – but no group immediately admitted the bombings.

The explosions occurred as Indian and Pakistani officials began talks in Islamabad on an unprecedented opening of the territory’s disputed frontier to help victims of the massive October 8 earthquake believed to have killed about 80,000 people.

Foreign Ministry officials were discussing whether to let Kashmiris cross the heavily militarized Line of Control, the cease-fire line that divides the Himalayan region over which the South Asian rivals have fought two wars.