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The Bombay Bombings

By Jeralyn, Section Foreign Affairs
Posted on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 11:31:39 AM EST
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Update: First person account from a Wall St Journal reporter (free link) who was on a train next to one of those bombed.

The news from Bombay is grim as the death count from the mass transit bombings now stands at 163 with more than 400 injured.

Eight bombs hit Bombay's commuter rail network during rush hour Tuesday evening, killing at least 147 people and wounding more than 400 in what authorities called a well-coordinated terrorist attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility in the bombings, which came in quick succession - a common tactic employed by Kashmiri militants. The blasts came hours after a series of grenade attacks by Islamic extremists killed eight people in the main city of India's part of Kashmir.

U.S. officials say the attacks "were likely part of the sectarian violence over Kashmir."

One of the officials said the attacks' coordinated nature and their targeting of trains at peak travel times match the modus operandi of two Islamic extremist groups that have been active in India during the last several years: Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, or Army of the Righteous, and Jaish-e-Mohammad, or Army of Mohammed.

The U.S. government has designated both groups as terrorist organizations and considers them affiliates of al-Qaida.

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    The Bombay Bombings | 15 comments (15 topical)
    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#1)
    by Dadler on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 11:49:05 AM EST
    What a wonderful world it could be.

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#2)
    by Johnny on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 03:53:40 PM EST
    This would not have happened had they used random bag searches.

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#3)
    by jimcee on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 04:34:12 PM EST
    And the bombers were using the cloak of what religious text? Who'd a thunk it. When was the last time a Hindi terrorist group bombed a Pakistani train? Anyone know? It does make mass transit bag searches and cameras more appealing to me and I'm a Libertarian!

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 05:43:19 PM EST
    Johnny, "This would not have happened had they used random bag searches." Please elucidate. Do you even know what the odds are to find something like that? Do you know the explosives were in a bag and not carried around someone? Perhaps the employees of the train bypassed "security"? Bag searches are a way to "reassure" the people that the govt is concerned. It, in no way, assures detection, much less prevention, of incidents. Outwardly visible security is the present day "soma" for the masses and not a thing more.

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#5)
    by soccerdad on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 06:20:39 PM EST
    Sky I'm pretty sure that was sarcasm on his part.

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#6)
    by Johnny on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 07:57:07 PM EST
    Yep, pretty sure it was sarcastic. Bag searches, LOL.... Hey jimcee! There's a terrorist in your wallet!

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#7)
    by jimakaPPJ on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 08:41:41 PM EST
    Sky-Ho - One thing we know for sure. I you don't search you will never find anything. Cheers. Jimcee - Yes, the Religion of Peace strikes again.

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#8)
    by jondee on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 09:56:41 PM EST
    ppj - Your position on peace being evil is well known. But please feel free to tell us why it isnt the greatest thing to aspire to on God's green earth.

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 10:13:28 PM EST
    Burden the colossus with multiple fronts of asymmetric warfare and all of the nasties come out to play. Expect many more to follow. Also, what strikes me as most ominous is that many of these groups have interesting learning curves; almost as though they are sharing information with one another - or observing it in the press. Hmmm.

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#10)
    by Andreas on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 10:45:04 PM EST
    The World Socialist Web Site condemns the coordinated bombing attack carried out yesterday in Mumbai, India's most populous city and financial center. ... Whatever the ostensible aims of the bombers, the deliberate wanton slaughter of commuters and other train travelers is a horrific crime and can only aid political reaction in India and around the world. The Bush administration, as would be expected, seized on the events in Mumbai to try to promote its "war on terror"--the pretext it has invoked in seeking to establish, through military conquest, strategic dominance in the oil-rich Middle East and Central Asian regions and in mounting sweeping attacks on democratic rights at home. "We will stand with India on the war on terror," declared Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
    Terrorist atrocity in Mumbai By the Editorial Board, of the WSWS, 12 July 2006

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#11)
    by Aaron on Wed Jul 12, 2006 at 04:27:55 AM EST
    Like the London bombings, I refuse to politicize this type of thing while the pools of blood and hacked off limbs are still warm. I'll give it at least 24 hours in respect to the dead, maimed, injured and their families. Police seek Mumbai bombs evidence [The blasts all happened in fast trains and inside first class carriages on the Western Railway] [An eyewitness at Mahim told the BBC some of those who had jumped from the train were run over by another train coming in the opposite direction.]

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jul 12, 2006 at 07:18:29 AM EST
    Posted by Jondee July 11, 2006 10:56 PM ppj - Your position on peace being evil is well known. But please feel free to tell us why it isnt the greatest thing to aspire to on God's green earth.
    I am sure that he is not in favor of peace. His comment was obviously a facetious reference to Islam's ridiculous claim to being the "religion of peace"

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jul 12, 2006 at 07:50:36 AM EST
    That should read "I am sure that he is in favor of peace"

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#14)
    by desertswine on Wed Jul 12, 2006 at 08:38:46 AM EST
    And the bombers were using the cloak of what religious text? Who'd a thunk it. Jimcee - Yes, the Religion of Peace strikes again.
    Separately, Israel escalated its Gaza assault Wednesday, dropping a quarter-ton bomb on a home before dawn in an attempt to assassinate top Hamas fugitives. The blast killed nine members of a Palestinian family -- seven children and two parents -- Palestinian hospital officials said.
    The inhumanity seems to be non-denominational.

    Re: The Bombay Bombings (none / 0) (#15)
    by jimcee on Wed Jul 12, 2006 at 06:16:29 PM EST
    Desertswine, Although PPakaJim said it, I concur, '..The Religion of Peace...'. Uh-huh. The Israelis abandoned the Gaza only to be rewarded by Hamas winning control of the Palastinian gov't and thier minions killing and kidnapping soldiers from the Israeli side of the border while the Hamas gov't feigns ignorance. Israel is rewarded for giving up territory that was won in a purely defensive war with missle attacks into the settlements beyond the new borders that were created by thier recent concession. The Palastinians have elected a gov't that has at its core the desire to drive the Israelis into the sea. Israel is the only true democracy that exists in the Levant and has fought many wars of defense against multiple and combined dictitorial Arab forces and yet Israel has Arabs and Palastinians that sit in the Knesset. Where is the Arab country that allows Jews to run for office let alone get elected to thier Parliment? The Left has taken a tragic turn towards anti-semitisism that perhaps is not intentional but is none the less disgusting. Radical Islamism is the most dangerous movement in the world today. To deny that is to be a fool. When Episcopalians or Lutherans, Jews or animists start killing innocents on trains or at work in the name of God then I'll believe differently. A review of intentional attacks on civilians over the past 20 years lays the truth bare and that is that terroristic Islamism revels in the blood of innocent men, women and children. Those that try to defend thier actions share the blood that is on thier hands.

    The Bombay Bombings | 15 comments (15 topical)