Powerful blasts rock cinema halls in Delhi; 1 dead, 49 wounded

NEW DELHI: One person was killed and at least 49 others were injured in powerful bomb blasts in two cinema halls in the capital during the screening of Sunny Deol-starrer movie Jo bole so nihal to which several Sikh organizations have taken objections.



Immediately after the blasts in Liberty and Satyam Cineplex in a span of 20 minutes and located within three kilometers of each other, Delhi was put on high alert as several cinema halls in and around the National capital, which were screening the film, were evacuated.



Forty-four people, including five women, were wounded in the explosion in Liberty in central Delhi at around 20:25 hours and six people, including two women and a girl child, injured in Satyam Cineplex in West Delhi at 20:45 hours at the fag-end of the evening show, police sources said.



The explosive in Liberty was placed under the fifth row of the rear stall while in Satyam, it went off in the toilet.



The injured were rushed to nearby hospitals where the condition of one person was stated to be serious.



All the cinema halls in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Noida, which where the movie, have been evacuated as a precautionary measure and night shows there have been cancelled.



A high alert was sounded across Delhi, particularly in cinema halls, following the explosions, police sources said.



The film was withdrawn from all theatres across Punjab last week following violent protests from Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, the supreme body managing Sikh shrines in Punjab and some other parts of the country.



Union home Minister Shivraj Patil, who visited the injured in Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, told reporters that there was no report of death in blasts.



All injuries in the explosions are of minor nature, he added. Window panes, glass panelled snack counters and wooden doors of Liberty and Satyam were damaged. Panic gripped the two packed halls when the blasts took place during the Sunday evening shows of the movie released all over the country just two days back.



Viewers ran helter-skelter for safety. Fire brigade personnel, ambulances and policemen rushed to the blast sites and evacuation of the injured and others was undertaken in right earnest.