Earthquake an act of cowardice, says PM

New Delhi : Pakistan has strongly protested against a section of the Indian media blaming it for the earthquake in Delhi and the National Capital Region that recorded 4.2 on the Richter scale at 11:20 pm on Wednesday. So furious was the Pakistan establishment that the Indian High commissioner to Pakistan was summoned to the foreign office in Islamabad in his pajamas and told that a certain `Bengali-English’ channel will be sued if it did not stop pointing a finger at India’s neighbour for just about everything.

Pakistan was already upset with the blame being put on its non-state actors like HuJi for the blasts in Delhi earlier in the day, that killed 11 people.

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, was woken up and informed about  the tremors. He said those responsible for the “cowardly earthquake will be brought to book”, before going back to sleep.

Late at midnight, the Delhi Police spokesperson issued a statement on TV, advising all citizens in the National Capital Region, who do not have a security threat, to sleep in the open. “I must clarify that though we have not received any intelligence input in the last two months about an earthquake from the Union Home ministry, we feel, in the wake of the Delhi High court tragedy, we must not take any chances.”

Speaking to a TV channel over phone in its midnight bulletin, a sleepy Union Home minister P Chidambaram condemned the earthquake and said its timing when most of the people had retired to bed, was aimed at causing maximum damage. He promised a thorough probe by a team of 20 officers from the Earthquake investigation Agency.

In a statement from Ralegan Siddhi, Anna Hazare said, if Janlokpal Bill was introduced in Parliament, no earthquake would have dared to touch Bharat Mata. “Inn netao ko sabak sikhana padega. Ab to dharti maa bhi bol rahi hai. Lekin himsa nahin, ahimsa se,” he added.