Bombs rock Delhi mosque

DELHI - Two bombs ripped through India's largest and most famous mosque yesterday, injuring at least ten worshippers attending Friday prayers.

The explosives, hidden in plastic bags that had been left behind in the main court of the Jama Masjid mosque in Old Delhi, went off just after evening prayers had finished.

Earlier in the day, at least five people were killed in a series of grenade attacks in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-held Kashmir.

It was not clear if the Delhi and Kashmir attacks were linked.

They came as much of India was celebrating the Hindu New Year yesterday.

Just a short while before the bombs exploded, the mosque was crowded with 15,000 worshippers.

Most had left by the time the bombs went off; had they detonated sooner, there could have been many casualties.

The Jama Masjid, built in the seventh century by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, is one of Delhi's main tourist sites. The vast building was not damaged.

In Kashmir, the violence began when a grenade was thrown at an Indian military truck in central Srinagar.

Minutes later two passers-by were killed in a second grenade attack.

By the end of the day there were five such attacks.

All of the dead were civilians. It was the most serious violence in Kashmir for some months.

Four Islamist militant factions fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir claimed responsibility. There was no indication who was behind the attacks in Delhi.

That they came on a major holiday was an echo of bombings in Delhi markets last October that killed 62 people on the eve of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

That they targeted a Muslim holy site suggested they could be a retaliation for bombs which killed 15 people in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi last month.

- INDEPENDENT