Scores dead in Mumbai train bombs

[Tulameen]

At least 130 people have been killed and 300 injured by seven bombs on the train network in the Indian financial capital Mumbai (Bombay), police say.

The first of the near-simultaneous blasts went off at about 1830 local time (1300 GMT), during the rush hour in the suburbs on the Western Railway.


Correspondents spoke of scenes of pandemonium, with people jumping from trains and bodies flung onto tracks.

There have been a number of bomb attacks in Mumbai in recent years.


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We saw bodies lying around. It was horrifying
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The city and the capital Delhi have been put on high alert, and Mumbai's entire rail network has been shut down, stranding hundreds of thousands of commuters.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for calm and described the incidents as a "shocking and cowardly attempt to spread a feeling of hatred".

Pakistani leaders also condemned the blasts as a "despicable act of terrorism".

Police said the co-ordinated blasts took place at Matunga, Khar, Mahim, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Bhayandar, with most on moving trains and two at stations.

Local reports said the bombs appeared to have targeted first-class compartments, as commuters were returning home from the city's financial district.

A shopkeeper near one explosion said it was so powerful they thought they had been hit by lightning.

Television images show dazed and bloodied commuters being carried by fellow passengers to waiting ambulances, as rescue workers clambered through wreckage to reach victims.

The force of the blasts ripped doors and windows off carriages, and scattered luggage.

Clothes and shoes were strewn along the tracks.

A medical student at a hospital in Parel, which has received many of the wounded, told the BBC News website the "floors are filled with bloodstains".

"There were so many [injured people], I couldn't really count," Sunny Jain said.

"There are not enough ambulances and many people are making their own way to the station. They are coming in taxis and by foot."

Repeated target

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which are the worst in the city for more than a decade.


MUMBAI FACTS
Changed named to Mumbai in late 1990s
Population: 17 million
HQ to many big Indian companies and foreign multinationals
Home of the Indian film industry, Bollywood
Thousands arrive monthly from rural areas, with many living in slums
Property prices are among the most expensive in the world
At least 250 people died in serial bomb blasts in the city in 1993

Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters authorities had "some" information an attack was coming, "but place and time was not known".

Analysts say Mumbai has been a repeated target because it is a financial hub and a centre for the underworld.

More than 250 people died in a string of blasts in the financial district of the city in 1993.

Correspondents say Tuesday's bombers could hardly have struck a target with greater impact - both practical and psychological.

The city's suburban train system is one of the busiest in the world, carrying more than six million commuters a day.

The BBC world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge says the blasts also expose the vulnerability of India's commercial capital - the hub of a nation with an image of rapid change.

The blasts came hours after suspected Islamic extremists killed seven people in grenade attacks in the summer capital of Kashmir, Srinagar.

Story from BBC NEWS:
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Published: 2006/07/11 17:59:32 GMT

© BBC MMVI

[Tulameen]

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has vowed that "no-one can make India kneel", in an address a day after a series of bombs on trains in Mumbai.

In a TV address, Mr Singh said those affected had responded with "courage and humanism".

Police are investigating seven bombs which ripped through commuter trains on Tuesday, killing more than 180 people.

But the government says there are so far no leads, and it has avoided naming any particular groups as suspects.

Correspondents say the government has publicly adopted a cautious approach, saying only that "terrorists" are to blame.

"I urge each one of you to remain calm," the prime minister said. "Do not be provoked by rumours. Do not let anyone divide us. Our strength lies in our unity."

Mr Singh commended the work of police, firefighters and medics in and said his country would not be cowed.

"Let me say again, no one can make India kneel. No one can come in the path of our progress. The wheels of our economy will move on. India will continue to walk tall, and with confidence," he said.

He said the government would do "whatever is required to deal with the challenge at hand".

Defiance

Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is India's commercial heart and the bombers hit right at its bustling centre in the south. Correspondents in Mumbai say the mood is one of defiance.

On Wednesday morning the commuter trains, which ferry six million people to work every day, were up and running again and crowded as usual with passengers.

"I will go on the train today again. I am not afraid of death," said Prashant Singh, a software engineer who was forced to spend the night elsewhere after the train network was shut down.

While the front pages of local newspapers carried stories detailing the terrible carnage, inside the pages there were headlines emphasising Mumbai's "invincible" spirit.

They also report long lines of Mumbai's minority Muslims queuing to donate blood to some of the 714 wounded in the blasts.

Meanwhile India's stock market confounded predictions, rising three percentage points on the morning after the bombings.

Group denies involvement

Police said they mounted a series of raids in the Mumbai area and detained suspects for questioning, but made no arrests.

Analysts suggest a powerful, possibly transnational group must have been behind the co-ordinated bombings, timed to go off at the height of the evening rush-hour.

The police chief of the state of Maharashtra - of which Mumbai is the capital - said the bombings bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Toiba, a leading Pakistan-based militant group fighting in Kashmir.

But a spokesman for the group rejected suggestions that it had been behind the attacks, describing them as "inhuman" and "barbaric".

A second group, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, also condemned the blasts.

'Infrastructure of terrorism'

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Indian foreign ministry rejected as "appalling" the suggestion by Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmoud that the attacks could be linked to the failure to resolve the dispute over Kashmir.

"These remarks seem to suggest that Pakistan will co-operate with India against the scourge of cross-border terrorism and terrorist violence only if the so-called disputes are resolved. Terrorism cannot be tolerated on any ground," Navtej Sarna told a news conference.

"We would urge Pakistan to take urgent steps to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism on the territory under its control."



Story from BBC NEWS:
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Published: 2006/07/12 14:54:56 GMT

© BBC MMVI

[Tulameen]

Mumbai bombs: 'Pencil' timers found

MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Timers hidden in pencils have been discovered in at least three of the seven sites where bombs exploded on commuter trains in India's financial capital, killed 185 people, police said Wednesday.

The timers are believed to have detonated bombs made of RDX, one of the most powerful kinds of military explosives, authorities told CNN's sister network, CNN-IBN.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which came in a span of 11 minutes during Tuesday evening's rush hour in Mumbai, when trains were jam-packed with commuters making their way home.

The Western Railway system carries more than 4.5 million passengers a day in the city formerly named Bombay.

Maharashtra state's police chief said more than 700 people were hurt, and hospitals continued appeals for blood donors.

Relatives and friends searched desperately for missing loved ones, posting messages at train stations and in the media as officials worked to identify the dead and injured.

Local train service resumed in most areas of Mumbai on Wednesday but long-distance trains were not running.

Indian shares recovered on the Bombay Stock Exchange after a shaky start on Wednesday, but investors remained cautious and dealing rooms were thinly staffed as nervous employees stayed at home. (Full story)

Meanwhile, as the investigations widened, police said the pencil timers were found at blast sites in Matunga station, Mahim and Borivili -- where authorities on Tuesday defused another bomb found after an initial explosion ripped apart a rail car.

Forensic tests are also being performed on a leather bag found at one of the stations, as well as on other items collected there.

Authorities said the bombs all appeared to have been planted on trains that left the Churchgate station in Mumbai, formerly named Bombay.

The blasts hit trains at Khar, Mahim, Matunga, Jogeshwari, Borivili and Bhayander stations, in that order. The seventh explosion hit a train between the Khar and Santacruz stations, a police official told CNN-IBN.

Although there has been no claim of responsibility for the carnage, U.S. officials said suspicion fell on two Islamic terrorist groups whose focus has been on the disputed territory of Kashmir -- Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the beheading of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl.

Both groups have been implicated in attacks that involved coordinated bombings during peak times in India, the officials said.

Asked whether Lashkar, which in a statement earlier Wednesday denied any role in the bombings, was involved, state police chief P.S. Pasricha was reported by The Associated Press as saying: "It is difficult to say definitely as this stage, but Lashkar-e-Tayyiba can be involved going by the style of attack."

Pasricha said officials had known for some time that Mumbai was a target.

"We had an idea since some months that Bombay was a target," Pasricha told reporters. "Since it is the financial capital, there are many vulnerable areas in the city. Targets are well known."

Despite a statement Tuesday from Pakistan condemning the blasts, India's government denounced other comments from Pakistani officials linking the dispute over Kashmir to the attacks.

"We find it appalling that (Pakistan) Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri should seek to link this act of terror to the lack of resolution of the dispute between India and Pakistan," said Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna.

"His remarks appear to suggest that Pakistan will cooperate with India against the scourge of terrorist violence only if the so-called disputes are resolved," Sarna added.

U.S. President George W. Bush and his wife sent a message of sympathy to Mumbai.

"On behalf of the American people, Laura and I send our deepest condolences to the friends and families of the victims of today's brutal attacks on commuter rail passengers in Mumbai.

"The United States stands with the people and the government of India and condemns in the strongest terms these atrocities, which were committed against innocent people as they went about their daily lives."

Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil also said the government had some advance knowledge that such an attack might take place, but "what we didn't have was the place and the time."

On March 7, 14 people were killed in attacks on a temple and a rail station in Varanasi. On March 12, 1993, more than 250 people were killed in Mumbai when 13 bombs exploded in several locations in the city.

CNN Correspondents Seth Doane and Ram Ramgopal contributed to this report.

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.



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