By Mayank Aggarwal, IANS,
New Delhi : Just about two minutes before a bomb went off on a footpath on the capital’s busy Barakhamba Road Saturday evening, seven waiting buses took off, crammed with passengers, from the bus stand there – a fortunate occurrence otherwise the death toll in that single blast would have been at least around 25, says an eyewitness.
The bomb, hidden in a dustbin on the footpath near the Metro station, went off at 6.35 p.m., killing three people instantly and injuring several others.
“There were eight buses standing there, including my own. Seven took off around a minute and a half before the blast, taking most of the people waiting at the bus stand, or around 25 people would surely have been killed in the blast,” Babli, a helper with Blueline bus no. 355 that plies between Noida and Anand Parbat, told IANS.
“The seven buses that left the bus stand contained around 100-150 people. It is really fortunate the buses were not present at the time,” said Babli, whose bus was standing a little way ahead of the bus stand.
Babli had alighted from the bus to hark passengers for his bus, like in most Blueline buses. He had gone to a mobile cart selling cold drinks there and bought himself a drink while his bus waited for people to get on. He had just gulped down his cold drink and walked to the cart to return the empty bottle, when the bomb went off.
Babli was knocked down, but not injured.
Reeling off the names of the seven buses that had taken off, Babli said: “There were two No. 85 (from Anand Vihar to Punjabi Bagh), one No. 313 (Vivek Vihar to Inderpuri), one Whiteline chartered, an Uttar Pradesh Roadways bus to Greater Noida, a GL32 to Noida and another bus to Greater Kailash.”
Sundays always see the busy Barakhamba Road virtually empty with all offices closed there. But this Sunday was different.
A horde of media persons was present at the blast site as well as a large crowd of curious people who had come in the morning to see the place, a day after the mayhem.
The dustbin in which the bomb was placed had been taken away by police for forensic examination.
People were chatting with eyewitnesses, taking in as many details as they could of the incident.
Most of the vendors present there – the ice cream seller, the cold water seller, the channa wala – were all injured.
The shattered glass of a public convenience at the site and the blood stains on the ground told of the horror of the incident. A Delhi Metro Rail Corporation stand for flower pots too was smashed with the impact of the blast.
Pooran, who works at the New Delhi Municipal Council office there, said he and others working nearby had come out to help the victims.
“When (Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra) Modi had warned the central government about the blasts earlier, then why did the government not do anything to prevent it,” asked Hari Singh, a bystander, echoing the anger of the people.
On Saturday evening five blasts ripped through the capital – two in Connaught Place, one in Karol Bagh and one in Greater Kailash-I market – killing 20 people and injuring around 50. The blasts came more than a month after the July 26 Ahmedabad blasts in which around 50 people were killed.