Security increased across India for Muslim festival

Indian authorities stepped up security across the country today as millions of Muslims celebrated the Eid al-Fitr festival nearly a week after triple bombings killed 60 people ahead of a major Hindu celebration.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chaired a meeting of top officials late yesterday to review security arrangements for Eid, as well as to take stock of the investigation so far into last weekend’s bombings in two markets and on a bus.

Saturday’s blasts occurred as thousands of people crowded the markets to shop for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights that saw subdued celebrations on Tuesday.

About 3,000 additional police and paramilitary soldiers were deployed across New Delhi in public places and at high security installations for Eid, police said. Security checkpoints were set up along major roads leading into and out of the capital, and cars were being randomly stopped and searched.

Police in some Indian cities were deluged with calls about possible suspects after investigators in New Delhi released sketches of a man who allegedly left a bag, which later exploded, on a passenger bus.

The driver, Kuldeep Singh, spotted the bag and was about to throw it off when it detonated, wounding nine people, including him.

“Seeing the wires and the clock, I realised it was a bomb. I was about to get down after throwing the bag out of the bus, but could not escape injury as the bomb went off,” Singh, 30, was quoted as saying by The Pioneer newspaper.

He is recovering in a New Delhi hospital.

“It was only presence of mind which averted a bigger tragedy,” he said.

Meanwhile, Indian police widened their search for militants suspected in the deadly New Delhi bombings, searching hotels and questioning people in the technology hub of Bangalore after receiving intelligence reports that suspects might be hiding there.

“There is no specific security threat perception, but we have raised the level of general alertness. All our senior officers are on the field, overseeing patrols,” said Ajay Kumar Singh, Bangalore’s police commissioner.

“We have put hundreds of our men all over the city to guard sensitive areas and important buildings,” he said.

Thousands of Muslims offered prayers at mosques across the country, including at the 17th century red sandstone Jama Masjid, the country’s largest mosque, located in New Delhi.

Muslims are the largest minority in India, a Hindu-majority nation of more than 1 billion people. With 140 million Muslims, India has the world’s second largest Muslim population after Indonesia.

Separatists in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir – the Himalayan territory claimed in full by India and neighbouring Pakistan, but divided between them - have been widely blamed for the bombings. A little-known Kashmiri group, Islamic Inquilab Mahaz, claimed responsibility on Sunday.

Police say they haven’t yet confirmed the group was behind the attacks.