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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Brief curfew in India city day after bombs kill 80
By MUNEEZA NAQVI
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The seven bombs that tore through this historic city ripped apart Sumana Khan's life, killing her mother and two aunts and leaving the 4-year-old girl with a broken arm, a fractured leg and shrapnel embedded in her back.

Lying in a crowded hospital Wednesday, Khan and the nearly 200 other wounded were in some ways among the lucky _ they survived. Eighty others became the latest deaths in a seemingly endless series of bombings that have terrorized Indian cities in recent years.

Most attacks, like Tuesday's in Jaipur, have hit soft targets _ crowded markets, packed temples, congested trains, mosques filled with worshippers. And with authorities repeatedly blaming Islamic militants for the bombings, each has brought fears of fresh violence between India's Hindu majority and its sizable Muslim minority.

Soon after the attack, officials suggested that blame would eventually fall on Pakistan and the Islamic militant groups that India accuses its neighbor of backing.

Authorities moved quickly Wednesday to prevent any retaliatory bloodshed, imposing a curfew in Jaipur's walled old city, where all the explosions took place, and deploying police in force.

The result was empty streets and shuttered stores in a city known for its pink-hued palaces and ornate jewelry.

But by evening, the curfew was lifted and people flocked onto the streets, buying groceries and going to prayers, saying they were determined to carry on with life.

"We have nothing to fear," said Vijendra Kumar Sharma, 39, a businessman. "The people in this city are very peace loving; this is the work of outsiders."

When the bombs went off, Sumana Khan's family was shopping while on vacation in Jaipur where they were visiting relatives of her mother.

"The entire family was wiped out," said an inconsolable Liaqat Khan, Sumana's grandfather, his body wracked with sobs as he was being driven home from a cemetery where his three daughters were buried Wednesday morning.

Sumana didn't even get to see her mother buried. She was lying in the Sawai Man Singh hospital with a drip hooked to her arm and bandages all over her small body.

"She's so traumatized that she hasn't said a word all day," said Mohammed Iqbal, an uncle who was taking care of her at the hospital while her father, who was not with the family during the blast, attended the funeral.

"Last night she kept asking for her mother, but we haven't told her she is dead," Iqbal said.

Police in Jaipur had questioned nearly a dozen people without making any arrests. However, police released a sketch of a man in his early 20s who was believed to have bought bicycles used in the attacks.

Most of the bombs were placed in bags left on bicycles, and investigators traced them all to two shops in Jaipur's old city, Inspector General of Police Pankaj Singh said.

Vasundhara Raje, chief minister of Rajasthan state, of which Jaipur is the capital, said the bombers might have been aiming to stir up sectarian tensions. "But there is peace in the city. The curfew is a precaution," she said.

Her view was echoed by residents of Jaipur, who said they did not want to see more violence. Continued...

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