Indian investigation tightens Islamic terror link between triple blasts at Varanasi and last year`s serial bombings in New Delhi

The blasts that left at least 21 dead, 67 wounded, in Varanasi’s Hindu temple and railway station occurred Tuesday, March 7, days after Muslim-Hindu clashes in nearby Lucknow and Goa in the west. Northern India`s shrines and key locations remain on heightened terror alert.
debkafile adds: Ten minutes apart, the blasts were similar to last year’s bombing attacks by an al Qaeda-linked Kashmir group in New Delhi that killed 60 people just ahead of the Hindu Diwali festival.
The first bomb was placed in a pressure cooker. A foot-deep crater was left outside the station. Investigators say all three bombs were programmed to cause maximum damage and casualties.
The shrine in Hinduism’s holiest city was crowded with thousands of pilgrims making offerings to the monkey-god Hanuman when the explosion occurred. Two more blasts struck a packed rail carriage at the local station and a ticket counter. Four unexploded bombs were found at a bathing platform of the River Ganges that runs through Varanasi.