A 2-year-old who had been sitting on her mother's lap when the bomb went off died in a hospital, Lal said. Her mother and two others, including one of the foreigners, were in serious condition.
The bomb was stashed in a milk container on the Sheetla Ghat, one of many stone staircases leading to the Ganges river, the site of daily spiritual rituals, according to police official Brij Lal.
foreigners were watching the Hindu prayer ceremony and taking photographs.
The ceremony is a daily ritual in Varanasi, the holiest city in the Hindu religion, during which priests and others light oil lamps, ring bells and chant prayers to worship the Ganges.
From AFP
"It was an attempt to weaken our resolve to fight the evil forces of terrorism, and the terrorists will not succeed," [Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.]
Tuesday's blast came a day after the anniversary of the 1992 razing of a mosque by Hindu zealots in the Uttar Pradesh temple town of Ayodhya, which sparked some of post-independence India's worst communal violence.
The email [sent to various media outlets, allegedly] from the Indian Mujahedeen [which also calls itself "the militia of Islam"] said the attack was retaliation for a recent court ruling that divided the disputed Ayodhya site between Hindu and Muslim claimants.
From Reuters
Officials said about 20 to 25 people were hurt in the explosion and [the ensuing] stampede.
Sources: AFP, AP, Reuters
Comments: The Babri Mosque in Ayodhya was most likely built at the place where Hindu god Rama was born, after it was seized from Hindus by Babur, the first Muslim Turkish Mughal Emperor of India, as Hindus claim.
Muslims taking over or destroying religious sites of other religions is nothing news.
Mohammed, the founder of Islam, himself took over the pre-Islamic Arabian pagan shrine in Mecca, the Kaaba, and destroyed the pagan idols there, and turned into the the holiest site in Islam.
Although the idols were destroyed, Mohammed effectively turned the Kaaba or the black rock itself into an idol that Muslims up to this day face in prayer and bow down to, despite denunciation by Muslims of 'idolatry' by others.
This also shows once again yet another instance of the incorporation of elements of pre-Islamic paganism into Islam, with the usual practice of stories being made up to account for the non-existent history prior to the invention of Islam by Mohammed.
Similar stories are also told to account for pre-Islamic history regarding Christianity and Judaism in order to incorporate elements of these two religions into Islam as well.
Another famous religious site taken over, a little before the construction of the Babri Mosque in India, also by Turkish Muslims is the Christian basilica of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (now called Istanbul in Turkey after the capital of the Christian Byzantine empire was invaded and fell to the Muslim Ottoman Turks).
Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque after the fall of Constantinople and is now a museum after being turned into one in 1934, although the Islamic minarets around it and Islamic symbols inside it still remain.
But, as it had been repeated many times before, the point is not that there is this or that alleged grievance by Muslims. The overall story, not limited by time and space, is that there will be some disagreement over some issue and some Muslims will then use it as an excuse for killing 2-year-old girls and other innocent civilians.
The bottom line is that they always have some excuse for terrorism. If it wasn't this excuse, then it will be something else. Those who fall for this trap and tries to resolve alleged grievances out of misguided ideas or hidden agendas are foolishly or deliberately encouraging more terrorism.
But at least for once no 'racist' White Westerners or Christian 'crusaders' or Zionists (Jews) are involved in this case. What a relief!
Update: Another example of Muslims building on sites sacred to other religions is the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem built on the Temple mount, the holiest site in Judaism and a sacred site to Christians.
This also shows how Islam incorporates elements from other religions.
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Pakistan involved in Mumbai terror attacks according to David Headley
The “Devil's hand” terrorists demanded priest convert to Islam before shooting his head during Baghdad church siege
Bomb attacks against Shiite Iranian pilgrims in Iraq kills 8 and injures 52
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