At 7:10 pm, the first bomb detonated near a Hindu temple at the Zaveri Bazaar. Over the next half hour, two more blasts would rip through the city - the second from a taxi full of explosives, and the third and most powerful at Mumbai's Opera House. There are reports that a fourth bomb at the Roxy Theater failed to detonate.
Reports have been confused and contradictory, and reporters have been prevented from approaching the bomb sites, but casualties currently stand at 21 dead, and more than 100 wounded.
“There was a lot of blood and I saw at least three people dead,” said a gold dealer to the United Kingdom's Telegraph, adding that the death toll could have been worse if monsoon rains had not kept some people off the streets.
Because of the close timing of the bomb blasts, "we infer that this was a coordinated attack by terrorists," Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said. "The entire city of Mumbai has been put on high alert. I would appeal to the people of Mumbai and people all over the country to remain calm and to maintain peace."
No one has claimed responsibility. Unofficial suspicions have fallen on two radical Islamist groups that have historically focused on Indian targets: the home-grown Indian Mujahideen and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. The latter group was blamed for the 2008 Mubai attacks that killed 166 and plunged India-Pakistan relations into a deep freeze that was only recently beginning to thaw. (The Vancouver Sun has a summary of the main terrorist groups targeting India.)
According to Stratfor Global Intelligence, a US strategic affairs think tank, the attacks have the markings of a different militant group than the group that carried out the 2008 attack. "This attack does not appear to be as sophisticated as the 2008 attacks, which involved an assault team consisting of a number of militants that coordinated 10 shooting and bombing attacks across the city. The July 13 attack, by contrast, appears to have not involved suicide attackers but consisted of explosives placed in a taxi, a meter box and locations where they could be remotely detonated. This tactic is much more in line with those used by more amateurish groups, such the Indian Mujahideen, who have targeted crowded urban areas before."
India so far has very carefully avoided pointing to a Pakistani role in the attacks. The blasts came just two weeks before Pakistan's foreign minister travels to New Dehli for peace talks regarding nuclear issues and the Kashmir region. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zadari and Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani were quick to condemn the attacks.
The attack also came just days before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to visit India for the second India-US strategic dialogue. Ms. Clinton has said she has no plans to delay her visit.
The timing has led some analysts to conclude that the group that carried out the attacks were aiming to disrupt India's growing role in the global community and the developing bilateral talks between India and Pakistan. There are also concerns that if the blame falls on a Pakistani group, the crisis could create a crisis in the crumbling relationship between the United States and Pakistan.
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Terror Strikes in Triplicate in Mumbai
July 13, 2011
At 7:10 pm, the first bomb detonated near a Hindu temple at the Zaveri Bazaar. Over the next half hour, two more blasts would rip through the city - the second from a taxi full of explosives, and the third and most powerful at Mumbai's Opera House. There are reports that a fourth bomb at the Roxy Theater failed to detonate.
Reports have been confused and contradictory, and reporters have been prevented from approaching the bomb sites, but casualties currently stand at 21 dead, and more than 100 wounded.
“There was a lot of blood and I saw at least three people dead,” said a gold dealer to the United Kingdom's Telegraph, adding that the death toll could have been worse if monsoon rains had not kept some people off the streets.
Because of the close timing of the bomb blasts, "we infer that this was a coordinated attack by terrorists," Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said. "The entire city of Mumbai has been put on high alert. I would appeal to the people of Mumbai and people all over the country to remain calm and to maintain peace."
No one has claimed responsibility. Unofficial suspicions have fallen on two radical Islamist groups that have historically focused on Indian targets: the home-grown Indian Mujahideen and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. The latter group was blamed for the 2008 Mubai attacks that killed 166 and plunged India-Pakistan relations into a deep freeze that was only recently beginning to thaw. (The Vancouver Sun has a summary of the main terrorist groups targeting India.)
According to Stratfor Global Intelligence, a US strategic affairs think tank, the attacks have the markings of a different militant group than the group that carried out the 2008 attack. "This attack does not appear to be as sophisticated as the 2008 attacks, which involved an assault team consisting of a number of militants that coordinated 10 shooting and bombing attacks across the city. The July 13 attack, by contrast, appears to have not involved suicide attackers but consisted of explosives placed in a taxi, a meter box and locations where they could be remotely detonated. This tactic is much more in line with those used by more amateurish groups, such the Indian Mujahideen, who have targeted crowded urban areas before."
India so far has very carefully avoided pointing to a Pakistani role in the attacks. The blasts came just two weeks before Pakistan's foreign minister travels to New Dehli for peace talks regarding nuclear issues and the Kashmir region. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zadari and Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani were quick to condemn the attacks.
The attack also came just days before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to visit India for the second India-US strategic dialogue. Ms. Clinton has said she has no plans to delay her visit.
The timing has led some analysts to conclude that the group that carried out the attacks were aiming to disrupt India's growing role in the global community and the developing bilateral talks between India and Pakistan. There are also concerns that if the blame falls on a Pakistani group, the crisis could create a crisis in the crumbling relationship between the United States and Pakistan.
