New Delhi, India — A bomb planted in a transistor radio exploded Sunday morning in a crowded park in the capital, killing three people, police said.
Police said the explosion occurred near the railway station in Old Delhi. Two of the three people killed were rickshaw pullers, they said. Another person was injured.
Two unexploded transistor radio bombs were recovered near the blast scene, said investigating officer Mahavir Singh. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion.
Singh told The Associated Press that the bomb was more powerful than the booby-trapped transistor that exploded last May ‘1011, killing more than 80 people in New Delhi and elsewhere in north India.
Those attacks were blamed by authorities on Sikhs fighting for an independent homeland for the religious minority in Punjabi.
The explosion occurred at 9:30 a.m. (11:30 p.m. ETD Saturday), as Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was preparing to travel by helicopter trip to Punjab to campaign for his Congress party in Wednesday’s state elections.
No arrests were made, Singh said, but security was tightened throughout the capital at the airport, railway stations, bus terminals, movie theaters and other public places.
Paramilitary guards were deployed at places where people gather.
The booby-trapped radios last May were planted in buses, trains, bus stations and left in slum areas where they were picked up.
Details of Sunday’s explosion were not immediately clear, but police speculated the bomb was triggered when the radio was picked up by someone who found it and switched it on.
Residents of the capital were warned against picking up objects like transistor radios or cameras.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 27, 1985
