SLEEPING BEAST

Kashmir-centric terror outfits may be shifting focus from guerrilla operations in J&K to targeting urban centres elsewhere through sleeper cells

- BY SANJIB KR BARUAH AND KANU SARDA

At the morgue in Delhi's Maulana Azad hospital, a woman in her 30s leaned over a covered body. "Maa... Kriti," she whispered hoarsely, voice trembling as she pointed to tattoos on the charred forearm that she recognised as her husband's.

Amar Kataria, a Chandni Chowk businessman, had been in his car near the Red Fort metro station on the evening of November 9. At about 6:52pm, a sudden flash and a deafening boom tore through the air, instantly taking Kataria from his family. A blazing inferno raged as nearby vehicles caught fire. Human bodies and body parts lay strewn all around. "He loved tattoos," said Mohan Sharma, a relative of Kataria.

Sharma confirmed to THE WEEK that they identified Kataria based on his tattoos-maa and Kriti (daughter). The doting father's phone, recovered from the debris, still showed his last call: "Kriti Home".

At last count, 13 people have lost their lives in the explosion, while dozens were injured. Among the dead were Ashok Kumar Singh, a 34-year-old DTC bus conductor; Nouman Ansari, a 29-year-old cosmetics trader from Jhinjhana in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district, and Pankaj Sahni, a 22-year-old cab driver from Bihar's Samastipur-ordinary people going about their daily lives.

"Different place, same loss," said Ashok Randhawa, president of the Sarojini Nagar Market Traders' Association and a survivor of the 2005 Delhi serial blasts.

Randhawa was among the first to reach the LNJP Hospital and the Maulana Azad Medical College.

"Every time there's a blast, I rush to the hospitals," he told THE WEEK.

"It's not duty, it's memory..... After 20 years, the same pattern repeats." A series of connected events preceded the November 9 blast.