Indian police combed the sites of three powerful blasts in New Delhi today for clues to who carried out coordinated attacks that killed at least 57 people, just days before major Hindu and Muslim festivals.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who cut short a visit to Kolkata to rush back to the capital, blamed Saturday night's attacks in crowded pre-holiday bazaars on terrorists, but said it was too early to speculate who was behind the blasts.
New Delhi's chief minister appealed for people to stay away from public areas for the next few days ahead of the major Hindu celebration of Diwali, or the festival of lights, on Tuesday and the Islamic Eid al-Fitr a few days later.
In Delhi, extra armed police manned new barricades on the streets and the turnout at some temples and mosques was lower than normal in the cool, clear autumn morning.
Local media said 10 people had been held for questioning, but this was not confirmed by police. Many of the dead have yet to be identified and anguished relatives waited outside major hospitals through the night.
The blasts came as Indian and Pakistani officials meeting in Islamabad agreed to open their Kashmir frontier to help victims of the South Asia earthquake, the latest step in a peace process opposed by some Islamic Kashmiri separatists.
The blasts struck two markets and near a bus at another as dusk fell across the capital of 14 million people, a time when bazaars were packed with people shopping for special sweets and last minute presents for the coming festivals.
India has blamed previous attacks on Pakistan-based militants, including one on parliament in 2001 that brought the two countries close to war over Kashmir.
But the country is also racked by scores of revolts and in May two blasts blamed on Sikh separatists killed one person and wounded dozens in Delhi. The United States recently warned its citizens of a possible terrorist attack on US interests in Delhi and elsewhere, and Indian authorities are hunting a suspected al Qaeda operative.