India: Terror attack kills 17, wounds 81 in Mumbai
MUMBAI, India (AP) — Three coordinated bombings tore through the heart of India’s busy financial capital during rush hour Wednesday, killing 17 people in the worst terror attack in the country since the 2008 Mumbai siege. The attacks came just months after peace talks resumed between India and Pakistan, which New Delhi has blamed for past attacks.
Blood-covered bodies lay on Mumbai streets and people hugged and wept. Others carried the wounded to taxis. Crowds gathered in the blast areas as police questioned witnesses, and bomb squads inspected the undercarriages of vehicles searching for clues and other explosives.
Motorcycles were charred, shopfronts shattered and a bus stop ripped apart. Bleeding victims crowded into the back of a cargo truck to be taken to a hospital.
The first blast struck the Jhaveri Bazaar at 6.54 p.m., tearing through the famed jewelry market. A minute later, a blast hit the busy business district of Opera House, several miles (kilometers) away in southern Mumbai. At 7:05 p.m., the third bomb exploded in the crowded neighborhood of Dadar in central Mumbai, according to police.
Because of the close timing of the blasts, “we infer that this was a coordinated attack by terrorists,” Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said, adding that Mumbai was put on high alert.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts and appealed to the people of Mumbai “to remain calm and show a united face.”
Indian officials refused to speculate on who might be behind the blasts. Past attacks have been blamed on Pakistan-based militants, and Indian officials have accused Pakistan’s powerful spy agency of helping coordinate and fund some of those strikes, including the Mumbai siege.
Pakistan’s government expressed distress on the loss of lives and injuries soon after Wednesday’s blasts were reported.
A U.S. official says there are no claims of responsibility, or firm indication of which terrorist group might be behind the attack yet. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.
U.S. President Barack Obama also condemned the “outrageous attacks.”
“The American people will stand with the Indian people in times of trial, and we will offer support to India’s efforts to bring the perpetrators of these terrible crimes to justice,” he said in a statement. “I have no doubt that the India will overcome these deplorable terrorist attacks.”
At the site of the first bombing, Jhaveri Bazaar, a witness described two motorcycles exploding in flames and saw at least six bodies.
“People were shouting ‘Help me, help me,'” the man told Headlines Today television.
Another witness showed cell phone video of several bodies sprawled across the street to the NDTV news station.
Prithviraj Chavan, the top official in the state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located, said the blasts killed 17 people and wounded 81 others.
“India is not going to cow down,” Cabinet minister Farooq Abdullah said. “Let those perpetrators of this terror remember, we will find them and Inshallah (God willing) we will give them the justice that India believes in.”
The blasts marked the first major attack on Mumbai since 10 militants laid siege to India’s financial capital for 60 hours in November 2008.
That attack, which targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station, killed 166 people and escalated tensions between India and Pakistan. Peace talks were suspended and resumed only recently.
Some media incorrectly reported the blasts happened on the birthday of Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving gunmen from the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Kasab, who was sentenced to death in Mumbai, was born on Sept. 13.
The city has been on edge since the 2008 attack. In December, authorities deployed extra police on city streets after receiving intelligence that a Pakistan-based militant group was planning an attack over New Year’s weekend. Police conducted house-to-house searches in some neighborhoods for four men who authorities believe entered the city to carry out a terrorist attack, and computer-aided photographs of the four suspects were released.
In March 2010, Mumbai police said they prevented a major terrorist strike after they arrested two Indian men, who, police said, were preparing to hit several targets in the city. In September, police issued a terror alert for the city during a popular Hindu festival.
AP
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Now what telling Jayalalitha.
Jeyalalitha does not govern Maharashtra, Mumbai’s state. Mumbai is predominantly hindu extremists.
India is getting a taste of what we lived through under LTTE threat till Hon MR and Hon GR put a ‘thitha’ to it with the help of the heroic security forces of SL.
LTTE was nourished, trained, funded and armed by Indira Gandhi and then released on us to cause mayhem for 30 years. Each time we were about to kill them off for good the evil Indian leaders prevented it till their ex-PM was bumped off by LTTE.
I shed no tears for India. Let them and the evil imperial West be massacred by terrorists and their economies destroyed. Evil begets evil!
Welcome back Nicholas, I missed you.
Exactly my sentiments Guru. It’s good for them to feel the pain & suffering that our people went through for years and years. Hope this will remind the rest of that Sri Lanka is now a better place to live only because we manaqged to to get rid of the menace called LTTE and to do so there will asways be collateral damage so they can point their war crime allegations else where..
India must understand, feel & sense well ASAP what’s the fucking TERRORISM…!
Otherwise they also going to be sorry..!!!
Thank you Guru. I took a little break.
Isn’t it time ‘big mama’ also get a taste of what we went through?
It is a pity that VP failed to send C4 padded-bra thangachchi to embrace big mama before our heroic forces fed him to the fishes. She is now playing dirty by playing the Tamil Nationalist card against SL. Why can’t she play this game in big mama land itself against MMS?
Big mama is not up to it. She cannot govern. She cannot solve the huge problems of Tamil Nadu. Economy, Health, Education, Employment, Housing are all problems beyond her comprehension. So she diverts attention from problems at home by taking up lost cause of tamil nationalism in SL. There are only less than 3 million Tamils in SL against the 70 million Tamils in TN. Isn’t it time she focus her bird brain or peanut size brain in fighting for tamil nationalism in TN? She can invite all the LTTE former cadres in SL, Pillayan, Sambandan, Devananda, Sumandiran and all the scattered diaspora Tamil leaders to TN to fight for their lost cause in India against central govt. of MMS.
SL will be better off without the Tamil kallathonis who had made SL their home, from India as well as Malaysia etc since the early 19th C. They are now gearing up to re-start LTTE 2 version, with the help of imperial West and big mama.
Instead of resting on their laurels MR and GR should campaign hard to release to the world, all the captured video evidence from LTTE command centres, showing their war crimes against captured SL soldiers, Norway’s military and financial support to them and the dfouble gamer the imperial West played to support the terrorists. Norway and imperial West owes us billions of dollars in compensation for the evil support they gave the LTTE for vested interests. When is Hon President going to wake up and bring the impertial West and Norway to task?
India wasn’t aware enough of terrorism, when get BLAST near the EAR.
So, at least now they should be aware of when get blast in the ear & should act against it without being bias…!
Think no evil dear friends. One day you and I will have to die by getting killed or with natural causes. So don’t be happy for the people who are been killed in various parts of the world.Kindly pray for them and plead with God.
Come off it Damian, Are u suggesting we roll over and die. We are not suggesting that more bombs shold be exploded around the world. We are just hoping that these high and mighty nations realise how much pain and suffering we went through doing the LTTE terror reign.
We must do all we can to stop the imperial west harming our image around the world.
What is the stance of the USA over the Mumbai attack. Does USA will fight against the terrorism inside India as what they have been doing in Afghanistan, Pakistan and many other arab countries countries or will be silent.
Asees
USA did not assist Sri Lanka during all those years of terror becuase we did not have any vested interest worthwhile protecting in SrI Lanka unlike the middle east and They may not assist India because India have their own oil companies.