Seven separate bombs hit trains in Mumbai (India), at least 135 dead

[chri'stina 190]

I'm sure it's because Sujeet is from there, and I am not sure if I'd feel the same way if I had no connection to India(just being honest!), but when India gets bombed I get upset and ticked off. I mean, many of us panic when any little bad thing happens in the "Western world", but places like India deal with this stuff much more often than we do. Innocent people DO NOT deserve to be killed like this, anywhere in the world.

[Melo 1]

Well I got news that my friend is ok... but my heart breaks for all those who lost people in the blast... for the maimed, the injured.

[Sister Fracas 5]

I'm sure it's because Sujeet is from there, and I am not sure if I'd feel the same way if I had no connection to India(just being honest!), but when India gets bombed I get upset and ticked off. I mean, many of us panic when any little bad thing happens in the "Western world", but places like India deal with this stuff much more often than we do. Innocent people DO NOT deserve to be killed like this, anywhere in the world.

I also think it's sad that some places get so used to stuff like this, that they become desensitized.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I also think it's sad that some places get so used to stuff like this, that they become desensitized.

Desensitized to both the terrorist acts and desensitized to the retaliation that will happen soon after. In a way, they both validate each other and make each seem less "wrong".

[patdev 0]

it is just disgraced that it happened. hopefully they find the master mind and just give death not draging too long for them!!! they found some clues that will lead them!! hopefully soon now!!

Symapthy for every one who has suffered.

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

I also think it's sad that some places get so used to stuff like this, that they become desensitized.

Desensitized to both the terrorist acts and desensitized to the retaliation that will happen soon after. In a way, they both validate each other and make each seem less "wrong".

anything new, gupt?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Nope

[patdev 0]

Govt is still sleeping and not able to capture main master mind!! just go after terrorist in whole india and jut shoot to death!1 that's what PM need to decide now!!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Tension among Mumbai's Muslims

By Suvojit Bagchi

BBC News, Mumbai

Hundreds of Muslims have been questioned by police in the Indian city of Mumbai following last week's serial bombings.

Suspicion has fallen on the Lashkar-e-Toiba, a Kashmiri militant group based in Pakistan, as well as radical Islamic groups based in India prompting the security agencies to concentrate their inquiries on the city's Muslim community for any leads.

This has created a growing sense of uneasiness among the city's four million Muslims, who have come out in strength to condemn the attacks.

Mumbai has a history of tensions between the city's Muslim minority and Hindu majority, although initial fears of a backlash targeting the community have proved unfounded.

Temkar Mohalla is a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood in south Mumbai.

On the surface, it appears to be business as normal. Tailors are busy sewing wedding garments and local bakery shops are filled with buyers.

The narrow lanes of Temkar Mohalla are lined with stores selling everything from household utensils to toilet paper.

There is a sense of underlying tension which is palpable.

We try to talk to an old cleric just outside one of south Mumbai's most prominent mosques, Rasool Masjid.

"Please don't ask questions. Thank you," is his response.

Not a single person agrees to speak to us for a couple of hours.

"Nobody is going to talk here. Police are picking up Muslims across the city. Two boys got picked up here last night," says a local lawyer, Syed Haris.

Mr Haris and his friend Abdul Rehman, a local bakery shop owner takes us further inside the neighbourhood, away from the main streets.

Temkar Mohalla is where one of the city's most notorious crime lords, Dawood Ibrahim grew up.

One of India's most wanted men, he is believed to be living in Pakistan and is suspected of involvement in the 1993 Mumbai bombings in which some 250 people died.

"Whenever something happens in Mumbai, we get picked up because Dawood stayed here," Mr Haris says.

They refuse to show us his house, which still exists in Temkar Mohalla.

"Its too risky after the blast," Mr Rehman says.

Instead they take us to Hussain Hall, a local assembly hall, where a meeting of the Muslim clerics of South Mumbai is going on.

"If you have a beard and a cap, you will be stopped in the street and questioned. Only Muslims are getting picked up across the city. I am going to raise this in parliament," we hear as we enter the hall.

The speaker is a member of India's Upper House, Abu Asim Azmi.

"Muslims are targeted by both administration and political parties. We are fearing a fall out of the blast," Mr Azmi tells us later.

Another speaker, Maulana Athar of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said Muslims are targeted by the media too.

"We are not against an investigation. Suspects have to be picked up and that is fine.

"But all the suspects rounded up by police in last few days have been photographed by the media," Mr Athar says.

In particular he feels that displaying images of the suspects on Indian television is unfair and misleading since they have not been convicted of any crime.

But all the clerics praised the city's Hindu majority for showing "great restraint".

"Not a single incident has taken place when a Muslim cab driver or tea seller has been assaulted by Hindus, when they could have easily done that.

"So amidst all this fear and apprehensions we need to admit, that sanity prevailed," says another cleric, Maulana Hafeza.

On Saturday, the residents of south Mumbai, Hindus and Muslims, rallied in order to maintain peace in the area.

However, Najim Masudi, who lost his daughter in the Mumbai riots of 1993 said he still felt something could happen.

"In 1993 communal riots broke out when we believed the worst was over," he said

So this time he has decided not to allow his seven-year-old younger daughter, Zubaida, to go to school until the city calms down completely.

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

BOMBAY, India - A powerful military explosive — one often used by Islamic militants fighting in India's part of Kashmir — was used in last week's Bombay train bombings, investigators said Monday.

Indian officials have linked the attacks that killed 182 people to Pakistan, and the use of RDX explosives is a hallmark of the militants, who get at least a degree of support from Islamabad in their fight to wrest the predominantly Muslim Kashmir from India.

"The explosive used was a mixture of ammonium nitrate, RDX and fuel oil," said K.P. Raghuvanshi, who leads the anti-terrorist squad investigating the July 11 bombings.

Raghuvanshi declined to speculate on who carried out the attack, saying only that investigators had fanned out across India to track down leads.

But Bombay Police Chief A.N. Roy said earlier Monday that: "We believe the breakthrough will come soon."

RDX, one of the most powerful high explosives, is widely used for military purposes, usually combined with other explosives, oils, or waxes. It is also a key component of artillery rounds, mines, and plastic explosives.

The low-volatility explosive has some civilian applications including fireworks and demolition kits, and is used occasionally in rat poison.

India's suspicions have prompted New Delhi to suspend a two-year peace process with its nuclear rival and demand a "firm commitment" from Pakistan on reining in the militants.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Sunday that India's two-year-old peace process with Pakistan cannot move forward if terrorism "aided and abetted from outside" continues to claim lives in India.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13684

National Song of India, sung by Lata Mangeshkar. My humble online tribute to all the dead in Mumbai.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had this to say at a public meeting in Mumbai recently (excerpts only):

"Terrorism has crippled this country," he said, pointing at the northeast, at the corridor the Naxalites were building from "Pashupati to Tirupati" and there was "a concentrated effort from the time of Zia-ul Haq" to terrorise western India.

"Till the day I am alive, I will hunt down the merchants of death one by one," Modi declared to rock-star applause.

[...]

Modi pointed fingers at a Congress (India's ruling party) ally in Tamil Nadu, the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam, alleging that the organisation was mentioned in a chargesheet against the Students Islamic Movement of India.

He alleged that the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom had campaigned for the Congress party in Assam.

He charged that in the Bihar election, an Osama bin Laden lookalike had been paraded to garner votes. He said a Coimbatore blast accused had been freed to contest elections.

"What is your strategy against terrorism?" he demanded from the Union government. "If you don't want to tell the public, tell me, a chief minister."

http://specials.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/18sld1.htm

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

BOMBAY, India - A little-known Islamic militant group that claimed responsibility for the Bombay train bombings warned Tuesday that it was planning attacks against government and historic sites in India in an e-mail to an Indian television station. Also, the death toll in the July 11 bombings was raised to 207.

The death toll has fluctuated since the explosions a week ago on packed commuter trains. It rose Tuesday from 182 to 207 after officials added people who died after being taken to hospitals in Thane, a town outside Bombay.

"All of them are blast victims," said B.M Raut, a disaster management official in the state government of Maharashtra, were Bombay is located.

The group claiming responsibility, Lashkar-e-Qahhar, Lashkar-e-Qahhar first claimed responsibility for the bombings in an e-mail Saturday to Aaj Tak television, although investigators say they are still trying to verify the claim.

The group on Tuesday addressed doubts about its initial claim of responsibility, and added that it plans to provide audio and video proof that it carried out the series of bombings that ripped through Bombay's packed commuter rail network during the evening rush hour.

Lashkar said in the e-mail, provided to The Associated Press by Aaj Tak, that 16 people took part in the July 11 attacks in Bombay — also known as Mumbai — and that one of them was killed.

But "all the remaining 15 mujahideens (sic) are totally safe, and celebrating the success of this mission and also preparing for the next mission," said the e-mail, which was written in poorly punctuated and often ungrammatical English.

"We also request all the Muslim brothers and sisters of India to (not) go near the main historical, governmental and the monumental places of India (especially in Delhi and Mumbai) in future," the e-mail said. "Otherwise, they get hurt too."

Bombay is also known as Mumbai.

Indian police said they were trying to verify the authenticity of the e-mail.

Lashkar-e-Qahhar, which translates as the "Army of Terror," was unknown until it claimed responsibility for the March 7 bombings in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi that killed at least 20 people.

Investigators believe the group may be a front for Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, an Islamic militant group based in Pakistan that has long fought Indian rule in Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim Himalayan region.

The group is clearly aware of doubts surrounding its claim of being behind the blasts.

"We are surprised, why some media groups and peoples are disclaiming our responsibility?" the e-mail said.

"Therefore it has become necessary for Lashkar-e-Qahhar to prove our claim," it said. "Very soon, we will send you an audio/video tape regarding Mumbai blasts."

The e-mail was signed by a man calling himself Abu Mahaz, who identified himself as Lashkar's spokesman and the head of its "media group."

[chri'stina 190]

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13684

National Song of India, sung by Lata Mangeshkar. My humble online tribute to all the dead in Mumbai.

Nice. I went and listened to it and realized I have heard it before and just didn't know the name of it. (sadly I recognize it because of a bollywood movie!). I'm confused though, because I thought the national anthem and national song of India were the same thing. I thought'd it be the one that says "Jaye He" in it too. I was wrong!

Edited July 18, 2006 by stina&suj

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I'm confused though, because I thought the national anthem and national song of India were the same thing.

The anthem is Jana Gana Mana. That's the song that has Jaya he in it... this is the national song. IMO much better than the anthem, should have been the anthem, but was not chosen due to political reasons.

Edited July 18, 2006 by Gupt