AT LEAST nine people were killed and 35 injured when a powerful bomb exploded in the heart of the Indian capital's busiest commercial district yesterday, police and hospital sources said.
A Kashmiri Muslim separatist group admitted responsibility for the blast and said it was in response to "atrocities" committed by the Indian security forces in the northern Himalayan state.
At the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, where many of the victims were taken, Dr Raizada Kishore said at least nine people were killed. Eight of the 35 injured were in critical condition.
The explosion across the street from a stand for horse drawn carts blew out windows and caused the collapse of several buildings, wrecked cars, scooters and bicycles and started a fire which gutted half a dozen shops.
Shops in the area immediately closed down as store keepers and shoppers fled in panic. Police and fire fighters sealed off the area to keep away crowds of onlookers and brought in bomb disposal squads.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) said it had received a call from a man who described himself as a spokesman for the Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF) and claimed responsibility for the bombing.
"This blast was preceded by a similar explosion late last year in Connaught Place which was also planned by us," the caller reportedly said.
The little known JKIF and a Sikh separatist group both admitted responsibility for a November 21st bomb outside a restaurant in New Delhi's Connaught Place shopping district which left 22 people injured.
The Muslim separatist drive in Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority state, has left more than 12,000 people dead since 1989 but militant groups had so far confined their activities to the Kashmir Valley.
The New Delhi police commissioner, Mr Nikhil Kumar, announced last month, however, that four Kashmiri Muslim guerrillas had been arrested in New Delhi for plotting attacks during India's Republic Day military parade on January 26th.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Kashmiri militants. Islamabad denies the allegation but extends moral and diplomatic support to what it describes as a legitimate struggle for self determination.
The AFP office in Srinagar, the Kashmir summer capital, also received a phone call shortly after the blast from a man who identified himself as a member of the JKIF and admitted responsibility for the bombing.
"We will continue these blasts until the Indian security forces stop blowing up houses here and stop killing innocent Kashmiris," the caller said.
Meanwhile in Srinagar, a Muslim separatist group which abducted four western tourists in Kashmir repeated a claim yesterday that it was no longer holding the hostages and said they were in the custody of the Indian army, which had denied this.
"All four foreign hostages are with the army," the shadowy extremist group, Al Faran, said in its first statement to the press in 24 days.
"Three of the tourists were rescued by the army on December 4th in an encounter in which our commander was killed while the fourth hostage went missing," the handwritten statement in Urdu said.
The claim by Al Faran was essentially the same as one the group made last month.
The army has acknowledged that a top Al Faran commander was killed in the December 4th gun battle but said the hostages were not with him at the time. The army also categorically denied that it had rescued the hostages and said they remained in the hands of Al Faran.
The Kashmir police chief, Mr Mahinder Sabherwal, told reporters in Srinagar on Monday that the hostages two Britons, an American and a German - were sighted by villagers in southern Kashmir on December 23rd and appeared to be in good health.
He said the Indian authorities were monitoring the movements of the hostages.
Al Faran, in its statement yesterday dismissed the police chief's statements.