A little-known Kashmiri militant group claimed responsibility yesterday for Saturday's bomb blasts in India's capital which killed at least 59 people, but analysts said it was probably a front for a larger Pakistan-based group.

New Delhi has so far refused to blame anyone for Saturday's trio of blasts, but security experts see the hand of Lashkar-e-Taiba (Force of the Pure) behind the attacks, in an attempt to derail the peace process between India and Pakistan.

Indian police have detained at least 20 people, media reported, and are continuing to comb the bomb sites for clues.

The explosions took place within half an hour in markets packed with shoppers just days before major Hindu and Muslim festivals. Many of the victims were women and children.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed terrorists, but said it was too early to say who was behind the attacks.

Yesterday, the Islami Inqilabi Mahaz (Islamic Revolutionary Group), telephoned local newspapers in Indian-controlled Kashmir to claim responsibility for the blasts and warned of more to come.

"This is a Pakistani group and is a front organization of Lashkar," said Ajai Sahni of New Delhi's Institute for Conflict Management. These front organizations are often used to muddy the waters and deflect blame from their parent groups, especially when civilian casualties are high, he said.

"One way or the other, Lashkar is behind it," he added.

Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based expert on terrorism, agreed the blasts were almost certainly carried out by groups from the subcontinent but inspired by the methods of al-Qaida.

"It is very likely the attacks were meant to affect the peace process between Pakistan and India," he said.

S. Regunathan, the top bureaucrat in Delhi's local government, said 59 people were killed and about 140 wounded in the blasts, although some media said 61 people died.

More than 210 were still in hospital, many of them critically injured, some with severe burns.

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.

The markets where the blasts occurred opened yesterday but were almost empty.

There were also scares at two fairs in the capital yesterday after an unattended bag was found at one and information received about a bomb at another. The schools where the fairs were being held were searched, but no bombs found.

The blasts came as Indian and Pakistani officials meeting in Islamabad agreed to open their Kashmir frontier to help victims of this month's devastating earthquake, the latest step in a peace process opposed by Kashmiri separatists.

(China Daily October 31, 2005)