The five serial blasts in Delhi on September 13 left over 25 dead and over 100 injured at three places?Gaffar Market, Greater Kailash Market and two places in Connaught Place including Barakhamba Road and Palika Bazar. Four live bombs were defused in Connaught Place and India Gate areas.
Soon after the blasts, the RSS swayamsevaks rushed to the blast sites and different hospitals where the victims were taken within an hour of the incident. RSS Delhi Prant Sanghachalak Shri Ramesh Prakash Sharma phoned the Police Commissioner Shri Y.S. Dadwal and offered him every kind of help from the Sangh. Following this request Shri Sharma continued to receive various requests from the police authorities throughout the night. Karol Bagh DCP specially thanked Shri Sharma for extending help.
Besides Shri Ramesh Prakash Sharma, Shri Ajay Kumar, Sewa Pramukh of Delhi and Shri Rishipal Dadwal of Sewa Bharati monitored the relief activities overnight.
According to Shri Ramesh Prakash Sharma, more than 57 units of blood was donated in the night of September 13 only by the swayamsevaks. ?In all the hospitals, where the victims were taken for treatment, our swayamsevaks met the hospital authorities and offered help. The victims, who were alone, were provided special help including monitory help. Some swayamsevaks also helped the relatives of the victims in finding the dead bodies,? he said. ?I was in the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. A victim, Banarasi, s/o Shri Harishchandra, was alone and his family members were not aware of his injuries. I informed his family members in jhuggi-basti of Gaffar Market and took his mother and sister to the hospital,? said Shri Kulbhushan Ahuja, a Sewa Bharati worker.
The swayamsevaks helped the victims at all hospitals including Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lady Harding, Jessaram, Gangaram and AIIMS. More than 300 swayamsevaks from different areas of Delhi went to various hospitals for blood donation. But only 58 units were taken. Shri Ramesh Prakash Sharma called upon the people of Delhi to have patience and not to pay attention to rumours. He also consoled the families of the victims and directed the swayamsevaks to extend all possible help to the families of those killed in the blasts. Shri Sharma also appealed to the government to enact a stern law to combat terrorism so that such incidents are not repeated in future.
Meanwhile, VHP president Shri Ahsok Singhal visited the blast site in Gaffar Market on September 16 and also the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital to meet the blast victims. After visiting the hospital he expressed satisfaction over the treatment the victims received there. Talking to Organiser, he said the blasts snatched the bread earners of many poor families. He said the Hindu society is at war with Pakistan. It is a proxy war. If it continues the people would not get even safe drinking water and food. The whole Hindu society should think about it, he added.
He further said as long as this UPA government exists with anti-national ministers like Ramvilas Paswan who want to give citizenship to three crore Bangladeshis and describe the terrorist organisations like SIMI as patriots and demand ban on the nationalist organisations like RSS, such incidents will continue to take place. He said the people who support terrorism in any form have no right to live in this country. He alleged that the UPA government has been providing patronage to the anti-nationals. ?If the government is serious in combating terrorism it must give some positive indications. The ministers like Paswan must be removed from the cabinet immediately. The VHP is fully with the government in the fight against terrorism,? he said pointing out that the Bajrang Dal would now form suraksha samitis at block levels involving ex-servicemen.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Shri L.K. Advani, Delhi BJP president Dr Harsh Vardhan, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Prof. Jagdish Mukhi along with other leaders also visited the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital to meet the blast victims. They expressed their heartfelt sentiments for the persons who died or injured in the blasts.
Talking to Organiser after visiting the hospital, Dr Harsh Vardhan said the terrorists could not have succeeded if the Delhi and central governments had learnt a lesson from the October 2005 blasts and heeded the Gujarat Chief Minister'srepeated warnings about the imminence of a terrorist strike. The money of Delhi'staxpayers was wasted on bogus security measures. The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), which has been in force in Delhi since 2003, was deliberately not applied to bust terrorist cells and apprehend those responsible for the 2005 blasts. It is well known that the Congress party is abetting terrorism in India. Vote-bank considerations led the UPA government to scrap the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), which was enacted by the BJP-led NDA government in 2002, he added.
He said Sheila Dikshit government of Delhi and UPA government at the Centre had promised a lot of safeguards against terrorism in 2005, but they did not carry them out. In 2005, the government had promised that CCTV monitoring would be introduced in crowded places along the lines of London. However, though CCTVs were initially introduced at a few places, these were only exercises carried out to get media attention. Afterwards, no follow up was done. On September 13 also the government'scriminal apathy was in full view. The entire country was shamed before the world when it was seen that the CCTV cameras set up in Connaught Place were either out of order or placed in useless angle. There was no control room with monitors and dedicated personnel. Representatives of the international media have begun to doubt whether the Indian government is at all interested in protecting its citizens from terrorism, he added.
