Terror returned to Delhi on Saturday, nearly three years after the 2005 Diwali bombings. Five blasts in busy marketplaces killed 21 people and left at least 101 injured, many of whom were fighting for their lives in six city hospitals. Bombs wrapped in plastic bags and attached to cheap clock timers went off in Karol Bagh, Connaught Place and M Block market in Greater Kailash I between 6.07 pm and 6.38 pm, targeting festival shoppers and families on weekend outings.

Soon after the attacks, Commissioner of Police Y S Dadwal said, “We have vital clues in the blast and it would be cracked very soon.” Later in the evening, police sources said the Special Cell had detained two people, one from Palika Bazar and the other from Gaffar Market in Karol Bagh. Both were said to be activists of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

The first bomb exploded in an autorickshaw at Gaffar Market in Karol Bagh at 6.07 pm, killing 11 people and injuring at least 37. Glasspanes shattered 500 metres away, and a cloud of dust and debris rose that eyewitnesses said made it difficult to see in a 50-metre radius around the blast site for at least the next five minutes. “I saw five people lying dead on the spot, and many others drenched in blood,” said Roshan Lal, who was only a few metres away from the autorickshaw.

Even as people had begun to ferry the victims of the blast to the Sir Ganga Ram, Jessa Ram, Lady Hardinge, Jeevanmala and Ram Manohar Lohia hospitals, came news of two other explosions a few kilometres away in Connaught Place. A bomb went off in a municipal rubbish bin on Barakhamba Road at 6.34 pm, splattering a 20 square-foot area with garbage. Exactly two minutes later, another bomb exploded in Central Park, also in a rubbish bin.

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