NEW DELHI — New Delhi slowly crept back to life today after weekend bombings killed 59 people, but the two markets targeted in the attacks were unusually quiet on what would have normally been one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

A little-known group that police say has ties to Pakistan-based militants fighting in divided Kashmir claimed responsibility Sunday for the bombings Saturday night in two markets crowded with shoppers preparing for a major Hindu festival. A third bomb that targeted a bus did not kill anyone but injured nine people.

India usually blames the militant separatists linked to an Islamic insurgency in India's part of Kashmir for any terror attacks on its soil. But officials appeared hesitant to point the finger at anyone on the Pakistani side this time.

The attacks came at a particularly sensitive moment as India and Pakistan hashed out an unprecedented agreement to partially open the heavily militarized frontier that divides the disputed territory of Kashmir to speed relief to victims of the region's Oct. 8 earthquake. The border deal was finalized early Sunday.

Accusations of Pakistani involvement in a 2001 attack on parliament put the nuclear-armed rivals on the brink of a fourth war. But they pulled back and both sides now appear intent on maintaining the momentum toward peace despite the latest attacks.

Pakistan's government was quick to condemn the bombings.

On Sunday, a man called a news agency in Indian Kashmir claiming the militant group Islamic Inquilab Mahaz, or Front for Islamic Uprising, had staged the deadly bombings, which also injured 210 people.

New Delhi's deputy police chief, Karnail Singh, said the group has ties with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, the most feared of the dozens of Kashmiri militant groups.

The caller, who identified himself as Ahmed Yaar Ghaznavi, said the bombings were "meant as a rebuff to the claims of Indian security groups" that militants had been wiped out by security crackdowns and the massive quake that devastated the insurgents' heartland in the mountains of Kashmir.

Police in Indian Kashmir said intelligence agencies were not familiar with the caller's name and the government refused to comment on the claim of responsibility.

At the market and throughout New Delhi, security was tight. Dozens of police in uniform and plainclothers patrolled the streets, most armed with assault weapons.

Sarojini Nagar — considered the city's favorite shopping hub — was busier on Sunday, with some shoppers saying they had come to defy the attackers.

"We came here to express solidarity," said Shibani Mahalanobis, a 66-year-old grandmother who has shopped in the market for 45 years.