Replies

Activists of India's National Akali Dal party shout anti-Pakistan slogans for alleged involvement in terrorist activities in New Delhi after a series of blasts rocked two cinema halls in New Delhi(AFP/Prakash Singh)

India on red alert after three blasts in two days

Asia News, NEW DELHI: A state of red alert has been sounded in the Indian capital New Delhi as investigations continue into two cinema hall blasts on Sunday night that killed one person and hurt over 50 others.

Another explosion on Monday injured one man, but it remained unclear if it was linked to the earlier blasts.

Meanwhile a controversial film, believed to be the motive behind Sunday's explosions, has been withdrawn from theatres across the country.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to the hospital to visit the injured while a special police cell trained to deal with terrorist activities investigates the blasts.

No one has claimed responsibility and officials say it's too early to say if the explosions are part of a longer-term terrorist strategy.

K K Paul, New Delhi's Commissioner of Police, said: "Preliminary investigations have been made but to say that a hi-tech operation had been carried out is too soon."

India's Home Minister Shivraj Patil said militants probably chose the occasion of the Indian government's first anniversary to create unrest.

So the heavy guard at railway stations and airports has to be maintained.

Mr Shivraj Patil said: "... A day on which the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government was formed and that has its own significance. In view of this, we have asked the police to be extra careful and be more vigilant to avoid such incidents."

The blasts occurred at two packed cinema halls showing the film 'Jo Bole So Nihal'.

The film has been condemned by Sikh religious bodies which argue its contents depict sacrilege at Sikh shrines.

Also, the use of a sacred prayer as the film's title has hurt religious sentiments.

Although it's not confirmed that the attacks were linked to the film, most theatres have pulled it out.

Filmmakers in Mumbai have also called for steps to protect the financial interests of their fraternity.

Boney Kapoor, a filmmaker, said: "We should all collectively put a protest to the authorities that such things should not happen because this could snowball into a major, major financial loss to the producer, the distributor, the exhibitor, for no fault of theirs."

The topic of religion in commercial cinema has almost always raised hackles in India.

Several public interest litigations in the past have called for the censorship of sections, or the withdrawal of an entire film.

The debate is open: is it about Indian society taking films too seriously? Or, are filmmakers deliberately adding the controversial element to raise free publicity and greater returns at the box office?

Australia defence chief's son injured in Iraq

Asia News, SYDNEY : The chief of Australia's armed forces General Peter Cosgrove has revealed he kept his son's deployment to Baghdad a secret, even when his son was hurt in a car bombing.

Private Philip Cosgrove, 25, was one of eight Australian troops wounded when a car bomb exploded near their convoy in Baghdad in January.

Cosgrove said that when he saw his son off at the airport last December, he did not wear his uniform so as not to alert the media.

"My wife and I attended just as private citizens, just a mum and dad. I wore civvies that day," Cosgrove told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"I may have been overprotective but I just thought it was prudent under the circumstances that there should be no particular pressure on either my son or the other soldiers by having somebody with a well-known name as one of the young, private soldiers on the frontline in Baghdad."

Cosgrove said his son was not badly injured in the car bombing.

Cosgrove, who retires in July, said he prayed every day that his son was in Iraq and was relieved when he returned home on Saturday.

"I suppose I knew on a daily, almost hour-by-hour basis, the sort of hazards our folk were facing. And that's different to what most parents have as knowledge and that probably made it a bit more difficult," he said.

"So to some degree you had to put that on the backburner and simply do the job I'm expected to do which is to be responsible for all of our people and not get overly focused on my young son, love him though I do."

Australia has about 450 troops deployed in and around Baghdad and is in the process of deploying another 450 to the country's south to protect Japanese army engineers and train Iraqi security forces.

Cosgrove also said on Monday that the troops being sent to southern Iraq could be home within eight months.

Prime Minister John Howard announced last month that the head of the air force, Air Marshal Angus Houston, would replace Cosgrove as chief of the Australian Defense Force.

"He received some minor injuries but they were not too bad. Others were more seriously injured than him, both in that incident and in others of that particular time frame so he was lucky," he said.

"But I knew fairly quickly and I was able to reassure his mum that he was fine."