What is Happening to This City?

As with almost every night in the trainee house, we were sitting around talkin' about random things. Then one of my friends received a message from one of the LC members. Normally, this LC member sends jokes, so my friend was all ready to tell it to the rest of us. Instead, he reads out the following, "Bomb blast at ISBT (Interstate Bus Terminus), do not go there if you were planning to travel...." Boy, did that hit home. Some of our friends were there and we were just in shock.

So we called one of the guys that was travelling that night and he said that he saw the blast, but was not hurt. He told us that several were dead and that he was now on the bus with the other people he was travelling with.

We really had no idea how big it was or if people were actually dead. All we could do was rush downstairs to see if we could watch TV. To our surprise, there was hardly any coverage of it. One of the news channels had a ticker that read, "Bomb blast in Sector 17 bus stand in Chandigarh - 7 injured." Ok, so 7 injured is better than several dead.

One of the locals guys we were watching TV with said, "It's just a small blast, not really that important." From my experience (which is practically nothing when it comes to bomb blasts), I find it hard to treat any bomb blast as "not really that important." Again, something about this culture I will never understand.

The word in the paper this morning was that it was a crude metal bomb that blew a hole in the wall of a waiting room. There is speculation that the bomb was actually destined for another city, but blew up by mistake. A militant group in Jammu and Kashmir has been blamed, according to the Times of Chandigarh.

On the other hand, top police officials say it was just a gas cylinder used by roadside vendors that burst. Forensics experts, after reaching the site, exclaimed the following, "In all probability, it was a gas cylinder because the explosion had taken place at a comparatively secluded place." This is accoring to the Tribune website. The article can be read here.

Either way, security has been beefed up at every major entry and exit point to the city -- the railway stations and bus stands, especially. Life has certainly been exciting these past few weeks.