A powerful bomb hidden in a briefcase ripped through a busy crowd outside the New Delhi High Court on Wednesday, killing 11 people and injuring 76, many of them petitioners waiting for legal hearings. The device had been placed near an entrance gate reception area, where more than 100 people were queuing for passes to the court complex. The bomb dug a crater three to four feet deep near the main reception counter.
Gruesome mobile phone images of the moments after the attack were aired on television, showing screaming victims surrounded by bloody limbs and scattered files. A senior Home Ministry official said early forensic evidence showed nitrate based explosives with possible traces of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), a powerful high explosive. Investigators said they were also probing an emailed claim of responsibility purportedly sent allegedly from Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI), a Pakistan-based Islamist militant group linked to previous attacks on Indian soil. Meanwhile, a Foreign Office statement attributed to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack, calling it a “heinous act”. British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French President Nicolas Sarkozy also condemned the attack.
