11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings
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The 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. An additional bomb was also found, but defused, at the Borivali station. Mumbai is India's financial capital and most populous city, and the near-simultaneous blasts happened between 6:24 pm and 6:35 pm, at the height of the evening rush hour. The attacks claimed at least 200 lives and caused more than 700 injuries.
Details
The bombs were placed on trains plying on the western line of the suburban ("local") train network, which forms the backbone of the city's transport network. The first blast reportedly took place at 18:24 IST (12:54 UTC), and the explosions continued for approximately eleven minutes, until 18:35, during the after-work rush hour. All the bombs had been placed in the first-class "general" compartments (some compartments are reserved for women, called "ladies" compartments) of several trains running from Churchgate, the city-centre end of the western railway line, to the western suburbs of the city. They exploded at or in the near vicinity of the suburban railway stations of Matunga Road, Mahim, Bandra, Khar Road, Jogeshwari, Bhayandar and Borivali. An additional bomb was defused at Borivali.
These bomb attacks in Mumbai came hours after a series of grenade attacks in Srinagar, the largest city in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Although Home Secretary V K Duggal said there was no link between the Srinagar and Mumbai bomb blasts, details as to the possible existence of a link are not clear, with conflicting reports emerging as to whether the attacks were committed by the same group, or for that matter, as to the nature of the group that committed the attacks.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters that authorities had "some" information an attack was coming, "but place and time was not known".. HRD Minister Arjun Singh controversially claimed that the Hindu groups had faked terrorist attacks and blamed them routinely on Muslims. This claim has been quickly dismissed by the Sangh Parivar.
Injuries and fatalities
| Train | Blast location | Carriage type | Time (IST) | Deaths | Injured | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travelling north from Churchgate | Khar Road - Santacruz
| First Class | 18:24 | 71 | ||
| Travelling north from Churchgate | Bandra
| First Class | 18:24 | |||
| Travelling north from Churchgate | Jogeshwari
| First Class | 18:25 | 29 | ||
| Travelling north from Churchgate | Mahim Junction (platform 3)
| First Class | 18:26 | 22 | ||
| Travelling north from Churchgate | Mira Road - Bhayandar
| First Class | 18:29 | 44 | ||
| 17:57 fast train Churchgate-Virar | Matunga Road - Mahim Junction
| First Class | 18:30 | 24 | ||
| Travelling north from Churchgate | Borivali1
| First Class | 18:35 | 10 | ||
| Total | 11 minutes | 200 | 714 | |||
| 1 One bomb exploded at this location, but another one was found by police and defused. | ||||||
The Police Commissioner of Mumbai, A. N. Roy, indicated that more than 100 were killed and hundreds wounded in these blasts; he also added, "there have been seven blasts along the city's commuter rail network, which is among the most crowded in the world." Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R. R. Patil confirmed that a total of 200 people were killed and another 714 others have been injured. The entire Western Railway was shut down for the space of several hours, but at around midnight local time it was reported that sections were resuming partial service. Services remained running on the Central Railway Suburban lines.
Various news organisations have reported that at least 200 people have died and that more than 700 others have been injured.
An official list of the dead and the injured admitted to different hospitals has been put up by the Mumbai Police.() Also available is a List of the dead, transliterated from the Devanāgarī script. NDTV has also compiled a list of the injured [link] and dead [link] on its website.
Response
A state of high alert was declared in India's major cities. Both the airports in Mumbai were placed on high alert. The western line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway network was at first shut down, although some trains resumed service later, and stringent security arrangements, including frisking and searching of commuters, were instituted on the other lines of the network. The city's bus service, the BEST, pressed extra buses into service to transport stranded commuters home.
The Prime Minister also held a security meeting at his residence attended by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, and Home Secretary V K Duggal.
Resumption of services and return to normality
Western Railway services were restored on 11 July by 10.45 pm. As a show of investor confidence, the Mumbai Stock Exchange rebounded, starting the day with the BSE Sensex Index up by nearly 1% in morning trade. Foreign investors also retained confidence, with the Sensex up almost 3% at 10,930.09 at the end of the day's trade.Rescue and relief operations
- Initial rescue efforts were hampered by the heavy rains and the prevalent monsoon flooding, but quickly took momentum after fellow passengers and bystanders helped victims reach to waiting ambulances and/or provided first aid.
- Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced ex-gratia payments of Rs 1,00,000 (approx. US$2,200) to the next of kin of those who died in the explosion. The injured would be given Rs 50,000 (approx. US$1,100) each.
- Indian Railways announced Rs 5,00,000 (approx. US$10,000) compensation and a job to the next of kin of those killed in the serial blasts in Mumbai. The announcements were made by Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav after visiting those injured in the blasts at a hospital in Mumbai.
Sources of information
Due to the mobile phone networks being jammed, news channels such as NDTV ran tickertapes with information of injured individuals as well as SMS messages from those who wish to contact their families. Reports indicated that at around 18:00 UTC on 11 July (midnight in Mumbai), the phone networks were restoring service; telephone service was completely restored during the night.[Mumbai Help], a blog run by around thirty bloggers, was a useful source of information, especially for those outside India.
Derailment of the India-Pakistan peace process
Perhaps the most important toll of the Mumbai blasts seems to be the three-year long India-Pakistan peace process. The Foreign Secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan to review the Composite Dialogue process — which the two countries had tentatively agreed months ago to hold on 21 July — are now unlikely to take place, at least in the near future. On 14 July, Minister of State of External Affairs E. Ahamed announced that India would suspend the talks with Pakistan until President Pervez Musharraf abides by his 2004 promise of ending all support to cross-border terrorism.
Statements in response
Various senior political figures from India and around the world condemned the attacks. In India, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was quick to call for calm in Mumbai, while President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, and president of the Indian National Congress Sonia Gandhi also issued statements regarding the bombings in Mumbai. Officials from other nations offered their condolences to those affected by the bombings. Officials from Pakistan, which has long feuded with India, and the United Kingdom, which was the target of similar attacks the previous July, were among those who denounced the attacks in Mumbai as well as terrorism as a whole. Several militant groups, including Lashkar-e-Toiba and al-Qaeda, made comments — both in condemnation and condonation — about the attacks as well.
Investigation
Some 350 arrests were made 36 hours after the incident in Maharashtra, though police claim that these are people rounded up for investigations. Forensic examinations have confirmed that the explosive used in the blasts was not RDX and it could have been dynamite or ammonium nitrate. Until now, no official claim of responsibility has been made.
Late in the evening of 11 July, The Times of India quoted anonymous intelligence sources in New Delhi as being "pretty sure" that the attacks were perpetrated by religious extremists from the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the banned Students Islamic Movement of India militant groups["LeT, SIMI hand in Mumbai blasts" Times of India]. Both of these organisations have since denied responsibility for the bombings. Currently, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI are the prime suspects.
On 13 July, a man claiming to be a spokesperson for Al-Qaeda called up a local news agency in Srinagar to announce the arrival of the group in Kashmir. The alleged al-Qaeda spokesman said the blasts were a "consequence of Indian oppression and suppression of minorities, particularly Muslims."[link] There have been reports that Al-Qaeda men had infiltrated into the Valley for the past few years, particularly after the US went after it in Afghanistan and Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks. Also, it has been said that links have been found between Al-Qaeda and terror groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba in India.
On 14 July, Lashkar-e-Qahhar, a terrorist organisation possibly linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the bombings. In an e-mail to an Indian TV channel, the outfit says it organised the bombings using 16 people who are all "safe". Acccording to the e-mail, the main motive seems to have been a retaliation to the situation in the Gujrat and Kashmir regions, possibly referring to the oppression of Muslim minorities in certain parts of the region. It also says that the blasts were part of a series of attacks aimed at other sites such as the Mumbai international airport, Gateway of India, the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Red Fort in New Delhi. The authorities are investigating this claim and are trying to track the location of the e-mail sender.[link]
On 17 July, Indian investigators have confirmed the use of a mixture of the highly explosive RDX and Ammonium Nitrate for the bombings. They have idicated a strong possiblity of all explosives being planted at the Churchgate railway station, which was the starting point for all affected trains.[link]
Notes and references
See also
- 1993 Mumbai bombings: another series of bombings that occurred in Mumbai
- 13 March 2003 Bomb blast in train at Mulund in Mumbai - [Mulund Blasts - BBC]
- 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings: similar precedent
- 7 July 2005 London bombings: a similar series of bombings involving a transport system
- 29 October 2005 Delhi bombings: a series of three blasts in crowded markets in Delhi, two days before the Hindu festival Diwali
- 7 March 2006 Varanasi bombings: a series of similar blasts
- 2006 Jama Masjid explosions: two explosions outside the Jama Masjid mosque in Delhi in April 2006
External links
- redirect [[Template:Wikinews]]
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