Terror attacks in India

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Seven bombs kill 80 in Indian tourist city

JAIPUR, India, May 13, 2008 (AFP) — Seven near-simultaneous bomb blasts tore through crowded markets in the Indian tourist city of Jaipur Tuesday, killing at least 80 people and wounding 200 in what police said was a terror attack.

"We have information that 80 people have died," Rajasthan state home minister Gulab Chand Kataria told reporters.

"One suspect was detained and is being investigated," he added in Jaipur, the state capital.

One of the explosions went off near a packed Hindu temple, leaving pools of blood outside in the street and cycles and rickshaws in a mangled heap, television pictures showed.

Among the 80 dead were a 10-year-old boy at the Hanuman (monkey god) temple, a bride in a bright red saree still wearing marriage bangles and a young man covered in blood who was left hanging over the twisted wreckage of a bicycle rickshaw, the Press Trust of India said.

Shopping bags, bloodied sandals and shoes were strewn around Johri bazaar, one of the hit markets, which security forces cleared quickly for fear of further blasts.

One live bomb was found attached to a bicycle at one of the explosion sites and was defused, police said.

Government officials usually blame Islamic militants based in Pakistan for such attacks, which have plagued India in recent years.

Junior home minister Shriprakash Jaiswal told reporters, "The people responsible for these attacks have foreign connections," but he refused to point a finger directly at traditional foe Pakistan.

Press Trust of India, which said 200 had been injured, quoted a statement from Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani saying his country, "condemns all acts of terrorism and reaffirms its firm commitment to fight this scourge together with the international community."

Police said seven blasts occurred within minutes of each other during the evening in crowded markets of old walled Jaipur, about 260 kilometres (160 miles) from New Delhi.

"It's a terror attack. There was no (intelligence) report of this," police director general A.S. Gill told reporters.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts and appealed for calm, while the United States immediately condemned the wave of bombings.

"We're still collecting some information about this. But given the facts that we know now, quite clearly these bombs were intended to claim innocent life and it's something that we very clearly condemn," US state department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Historic Jaipur, which has a population of more than two million, is one of India's top tourist resorts and a favourite attraction for foreigners.

Jaipur is popularly known as the 'pink city' because of the ochre-pink hue of its hill top forts, Hindu maharajah's palaces and crenellated city walls.

State borders were sealed and a high alert sounded in Rajasthan state and neighbouring areas, police said.

The government also issued a nationwide security alert, particularly in New Delhi, where roadblocks were set up on major roads, and the financial capital Mumbai.

The bombings took place as India marked the 10th anniversary of nuclear tests conducted on May 13 in Rajasthan, but it was unclear if there was any link.

India has been plagued by bombings across the country in recent years and routinely points the finger at foreign-based Islamic militant groups fighting New Delhi's rule in the Himalayan state of Kashmir.

In October last year, an explosion killed six people and wounded 32 in a packed cinema hall in Ludhiana in Punjab state in northern India. Police called it a "terrorist" bombing.

In August, 43 people were killed and 70 injured in the southern city of Hyderabad when attackers triggered blasts at an outdoor auditorium and a popular eatery.

A series of explosions outside courts in three northern cities killed 13 last November.

Analysts say Islamic extremist groups are attempting to stoke sectarian tensions to derail an India-Pakistan peace process and damage the country's booming economy.

[Al-khiyal]

India on red alert after bomb attacks

July 27, 2008 -- Cities across India were placed on high alert today with the army called out to patrol "sensitive areas" after a wave of bombings saw 46 people die over two days.

More than 16 bombs exploded in the west Indian city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Saturday, which killed 45 people and left 161 wounded. A day earlier, a string of bombs exploded in Bangalore, India's hi-tech capital, killing one woman.

Police found two unexploded devices in Ahmedabad and also defused two bombs in the Surat district of Gujarat today. More than 30 people were rounded up in a series of raids, ahead of a visit to the scene of the blasts by the Indian prime minister today.

The bombings in Ahmedabad centred on two distinct areas. The first series of devices exploded in crowded market places in the old part of the city – home to a large Muslim community.

The second string of blasts, which went off 20 minutes later, targeted a hospital – killing six people including doctors. Television news channels showed pictures of victims writhing in pain and covered in blood on hospital floors.

Some eyewitnesses said the blast was powerful enough to throw a car into the air. "All I saw was a Maruti (hatchback car) flying up in the air and landing with a thud," Pavan Purohit told the Indian Express.

A group known as "Indian Mujahideen", seemingly dedicated to fomenting violence between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority, claimed responsibility for the Ahmedabad attack. The same group said it carried out bomb attacks that killed 63 people in the western city of Jaipur in May.

Like the Jaipur attacks, police in Gujarat say most of the devices were crude. Many of the bombs were packed into metal tiffin boxes, used to carry food, and stuffed with ball bearings. Some were left on bicycles.

Gujarat's state government ordered the closure of all shops, cinemas and markets. Ahmedabad is the main city in Gujarat, scene of deadly riots in 2002 in which 2,500 people are thought to have died, most of them Muslims killed by rampaging Hindu mobs.

The state's chief minister Narendra Modi is seen as a rising leader in the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party – but was also accused of turning a blind eye to the violence against Muslims.

In an email purportedly sent by the Indian Mujahideen after the Jaipur blasts, Modi was mentioned as giving "orders to kill Muslims". Violence, the email stated, is a means to "to clearly give our message to Kaffir-e-Hind [the infidels of India] that if Islam and Muslims in this country are not safe then the light of your safety will also go off very soon".

[Al-khiyal]

Death toll in Ahmedabad serial blasts rises to 55

NEW DELHI, August 1, 2008 (KUNA) -- The death toll in last Saturday's serial blasts in the Western Indian city of Ahmedabad has gone up to 55, with four more injured succumbing to their injuries. With four injured people, including two children, succumbing to their injuries since yesterday, the death toll in the Ahmedabad serial bombings has reached 55, news agency Indo Asian News Service reported Friday, quoting a source in the Gujarat government. All the deaths were reported from Ahmedabads' Civil Hospitals, where the injured in the blasts have been admitted, the news agency said. Over 200 people were injured in the 21 serial blasts in Ahmedabad, main city of the Western Indian city of Gujarat. Gujarat police and investigating agencies probing the blasts have gathered important clues, which point to the role of elements in Pakistan in the terror attack, the source said.

[Al-khiyal]

Five bombs explode in Indian capital, 20 killed

NEW DELHI, September 13, 2008 (Reuters) - Five bombs exploded in quick succession in crowded markets and streets in the heart of India's capital New Delhi on Saturday, killing at least 20 people and injuring at least 90 more, police said.

The Indian Mujahideen Islamic militant group, which has claimed several major attacks in recent months, sent an e-mail to television stations saying it was responsible for the blasts.

Police and witnesses said two bombs went off in dustbins in and around Connaught Place, a shopping and dining area popular with tourists and locals in the city centre. Others exploded within minutes of each other in busy markets around the city.

"Around 6:30 p.m. we heard a very loud noise, then we saw people running all over the place," said Chanchal Kumar, a witness whose shirt was soaked with the blood of several victims whom he had helped to carry into ambulances.

"There were about 100-200 people around this place," he said. The weekend was a particularly busy one ahead of Hindu and Muslim festivals.

The Indian Mujahideen e-mail mentioned nine bombs. Police said they had found and defused four.

"We have news of 20 people killed, and the toll could rise as many people are seriously injured," Delhi police commissioner Y.S. Dadwal told reporters.

In a hospital bed, Gulab Singh, his head bandaged, wailed at the death of his 2-year-old grandson.

"We were all sitting around the parking lot when suddenly there was a huge blast. We did not know what happened. My world has changed," Singh said, crying inconsolably.

Hundreds of people have been killed in a wave of bombings in India in recent years, mostly blamed on Muslim militants, with targets ranging from mosques and Hindu temples to trains.

In July, at least 45 people were killed when a series of bombs ripped through Ahmedabad, the main city of the western state of Gujarat. A day earlier, one woman died when eight bombs went off in the IT hub of Bangalore.

The failure to prevent the attacks has become an embarrassment for the Congress party-led coalition government, with elections less than a year away.

Police say the Indian Mujahideen is an offshoot of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India, but that local Muslims appear to have been given training and backing by militant groups in neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"I can just say that these blasts have been planned by the enemies of the country and they will be taught a lesson," junior home minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told reporters at one site.

Arun Jaitley, a senior leader of the main Hindu nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, told the NDTV channel that the profile of the bombers had changed over the last three years and attacks could no longer be blamed on outsiders.

"Homegrown terrorists are on the increase," he said. "We cannot shut our eyes to that reality."

Many streets that would normally have been bustling on a Saturday night quickly emptied after news of the attacks.

One bomb exploded in a newly constructed park in the centre of the Connaught Place roundabout, built above one of the main stations of the Delhi underground. Police closed down the metro and major markets in the city as a precaution.

Another bomb went off in a dustbin near an underground station entrance on an arterial road leading into the area, housing the offices of several foreign banks and multinational companies.

"It was a huge blast," said another witness, Sanjeev Gole.

Other attacks came in the Ghaffar Market area of Karol Bagh, full of electronics shops and packed at weekends, and in Greater Kailash 1, home to restaurants and high-end retail outlets.

Broadcasts showed wrecked cars and mangled motorbikes alongside personal belongings, some of them bloodstained, and abandoned shoes.

Wounded people were shown being carried away by rescuers, one leaving a trail of blood on the ground.

Hundreds of people milled around as police cordoned off the sites of the explosions, many of them angry with the authorities.

India's deadliest attack in recent years came in July 2006, when seven bombs exploded on Mumbai's railway system, killing more than 180 people.

The last major attack to hit the capital was in 2005, when 66 people were killed when three bombs exploded in busy markets.

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Deadly bomb blasts rock north-east India

October 30, 2008 -- A series of coordinated blasts ripped through India's troubled north-eastern Assam state today, killing more than 60 people and leaving more than 300 injured – and causing locals to riot in the streets.

The dozen bombs went off in crowded markets in the state during the late morning within the span of 15 minutes, leaving smouldering remains of cars and motorcycles in Guwahati, Assam's state capital. Three other towns in the state, which is famous for its tea plantations, were also hit.

Officials said that 61 people were killed in the blasts with 25 people dead in Guwahati. Eleven were killed in the Kokrajhar district and 12 more died in the town of Barpeta. Another 70 are believed to be in a "critical condition".

In a serious breach of security, the largest blast occurred a few hundred yards from the Assam main administrative building in Guwahati, home to the offices of the state's chief minister Tarun Gogoi.

Television channels showed some people lying on the streets, their clothes soaked in blood. Pictures showed the charred remains of cars and motorcycles that littered the blackened roads.

Bystanders dragged the wounded and dead to cars that took them to hospitals, while police officers covered the burned remains of the dead with white sheets, leaving them in the street. "You cannot even recognise the cars or the people. The phones are jammed. We never thought anyone could do such acts here," one lawyer told CNN-IBN television news.

An immediate curfew was announced on Guwahati as some locals, who blamed officials for lax security, rioted, attacking police vehicles and public buses. Police shut down roads leading in and out of the riot zones and said they had begun to comb the streets for any unexploded bombs.

Dozens of militant separatist groups are active in India's northeast, an isolated region wedged between Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Myanmar with only a thin corridor connecting it to the rest of India.

There was speculation that the separatist United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), fighting for an independent homeland for the state's 26 million people, was behind the attacks. In an email from ULFA to television news channels the group denied responsibility.

"It is very early to make a conclusion, I don't rule out any persons. ULFA is an anti-national group and this is the handiwork of terrorists. When they see the public outcry they will disown their work," said Mr Gogoi in a press conference.

The separatists say that Delhi's central government is not only 1,000 miles away but has little concern for local rights and is intent only on exploiting the region's natural resources.

Many of the indigenous people are ethnically closer to Burma and China than to the rest of India. More than 10,000 people have died in separatist violence over the past decade in the region.

The violence has taken on a religious dimension in Assam. Earlier this month members of Assam's largest tribe, the Bodo, clashed with local Muslims in murderous riots which left 53 people dead and 150,000 people in relief camps. It took troops and paramilitaries sent by the central government to stop the fighting.

Driving these sentiments is "illegal immigration" from Muslim-majority Bangladesh. The state's border with Bangladesh is impossible to police. Experts say there are two million illegal migrants in Assam.

[Al-khiyal]

Terror attacks in Mumbai

November 26, 2008 -- The death toll in the overnight attacks in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, has risen to at least 100 dead, with as many as 200 people wounded, and at least dozens of Indians and foreigners held hostage, according to officials and news reports. The Times of India reports six foreigners among those killed.

The coordinated attacks, which started at 10 PM last night in the swanky Colaba area in the southern tip of the city, included gunfights and bomb attacks which continued through the night.

The Bombay Stock Exchange, which is close to the area of the attacks, was closed Thursday, and the Mumbai train system, which normally transports as many as 16 million people a day, was deserted, said a person who was stopped at a railway station from boarding a train by security officials. Schools were closed for the day, and most Mumbai residents stayed indoors, heeding a call from Maharashtra state’s Home Minister.

In New Delhi, India’s capital, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh canceled a speech scheduled for this afternoon. Security in the government areas was stepped up, with roadblocks and stepped-up security near Parliament and almost all major hotels.

The attacks came at a pivotal time – local elections are ongoing in several Indian states, and in April, the ruling Congress-party will contest general elections under intense criticism for its failure to stem terrorism, and to counter an economic slump that has seen inflation rage past 12%, industrial activity slump to half its normal rate and the once red-hot stock markets dropping to multi-year lows. But the minister for Commerce and Industry, Kamal Nath, told Reuters that the attacks would not affect India’s economic growth.

“This does not have an economic component. It’s an unfortunate event,” said Nath by telephone. “(There will be) no slowdown in investment flows.”

A few hours past sunrise in Mumbai, the upper floors of the Taj Mahal & Palace hotel – an iconic, sea-facing property a few hundred yards from the historic Gateway of India arch – was in flames, with the police and army attempting to storm its compound. Some guests were seen leaving the hotel and were interviewed by television channels.

“We established that there were British citizens who were affected by these attacks,” Richard Stagg, British High Commissioner, told CNN-IBN outside the Taj hotel. “There are at least seven injured in hospitals here.”

The neighboring Oberoi Trident hotel’s lobby was in flames, and a hostage situation there remained unresolved, said a person who answered the phone at the Mumbai police control room.

The dead include the head of Maharashtra State’s Anti-Terrorism Squad, four other police officals, and at least two terrorists who were shot by police, said a spokesman for the state government in a press conference broadcast on television. The State Department said it had no reports of American casualties; Unni Menon, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy, said earlier that the he had no reports of American hostages.

But witnesses interviewed on Indian television channels said gun-carrying terrorists asked guests for passports, and separated American and Britons from the other guests. CNN-IBN television reported that security officials had asked television channels not to broadcast live footage from the hotels because of ongoing rescue operations.

“We were having dinner, and we heard shots,” said a witness in a phone interview, who was with his wife in the Taj Hotel. “We locked the doors and turned off the lights. But through the glass door, we could see a gunman wearing a red bandana with an AK-47, and a bag filled with something. … He was just shooting from his AK-47 – we just kept on hearing shots.”

Everybody crowded into the kitchen, and waited to be evacuated. Through a window, they watched gunmen shoot at guests at the hotel swimming pool. Hours later, hotel staff helped them leave through a side entrance, he said. But many hundreds were left behind, according to an account of the evening repeated by the spokesman for the state government.

The attacks were focused on the Colaba area at the southern edge of Mumbai. Colaba is the city’s swankiest neighborhood and is home to the offices of many multinational corporations. The bars and hotels in Colaba are frequented by India’s upper-crust and many foreigners.

Television reports showed scenes of utter panic, including footage of what seemed to be gunmen inside a hijacked police car raking a crowd with bullets. At the Cama Women and Children’s Hospital, gunmen had shot people in the lobby, and then had holed up on the fourth floor, shooting at police, said the state government spokesman.

At a different location, called the Nariman House, gunmen held hostages, likely Jewish (the building is the local Chabad-Lubavitch chapter). Television footage showed that three hostages had managed to leave the house around 11 AM, but no more details were available.

The board of directors for Hindustan Lever was reportedly meeting at one of the hotels attacked last evening. Television images showed the lobby of the hotel on fire. A spokesman for HLL wouldn’t confirm the meeting, but said all of the company’s employees are safe.

A major private equity conference scheduled to be held in Mumbai’s Grand Hyatt Hotel next week may be postponed, depending on how the situation panned out, said the conference organizer on its website.

This is the latest in a series of high-profile terrorist attacks that have rattled India in the past six months, including serial blasts in New Delhi, where an Islamic terrorist group attacked high profile business areas, killing at least 23 people.

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Gunmen run amok in Mumbai terror attack killing and injuring hundreds

November 27, 2008 -- Dozens of hostages remained captive inside luxury hotels in Mumbai today after a coordinated terrorist attack which saw teams of gunmen running amok in the wealthiest parts of the Indian city, killing at least 101 people and injuring more than 300.

Police and gunmen were exchanging fire at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident hotels, where dozens of people were believed to be held hostage or trapped inside.

Indian commandos were this morning surrounding the Mumbai headquarters of the Jewish group Chabad Lubavitch, another of the sites seized by the gunmen, and where witnesses reported hearing gunfire.

They were among at least 10 sites in Mumbai's tourist and business districts targeted in the attacks, which began around 9:30pm local time last night.

Among the dead were at least one Briton, as well as nationals from Australia and Japan, local officials said.

Ten people were reported shot dead at Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus, formerly known as Victoria terminus, one of the two big stations in central Mumbai. Shots and explosions were reported in eight locations across India's financial capital.

At least 11 police officers including Maharashtra's anti-terrorism squad chief, Hemant Karkare, were killed in the attacks. Karakare was killed in a bomb blast at the Oberoi Trident.

At 12.50am, the Taj, a Mumbai landmark, was shaken by gunfire and explosions and its roof enveloped in smoke and flames as attackers threw grenades at police outside. Near dawn this morning, police and gunmen exchanged sporadic gunfire at the two luxury hotels, where an unknown number of western hostages were still being held.

Six gunmen were killed by police and nine suspected terrorists arrested, according to reports. A previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attacks, in emails to local media outlets.

At one hospital, St George's in south Mumbai, 60 bodies and 200 injured people were brought in.

Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said he had put the army on red alert in an unprecedented admission that civil forces were unable to control the law and order situation in the city.

The police said more than 1,000 people had been evacuated from the Oberoi Trident, with waiters in black and white formal wear running across the road. At the Taj, television pictures showed some of the injured who had been evacuated on to the hotel's golden luggage carts. Several European politicians, visiting Mumbai in advance of an EU-India summit, were among those inside the hotel. Sajjad Karim, a Tory MEP, told the Press Association by phone from the basement that he and several others were barricaded inside the Taj.

"I was in the lobby of the hotel when gunmen came in and people started running," he said. "A gunman just stood there spraying bullets around, right next to me. I managed to turn away and I ran into the hotel kitchen."

Janice Sequeira, a tourist who had been at a restaurant in the Taj, told reporters it had been "really scary. It was like the sound of loud crackers, not one but several, we just ran out of there."

At the Oberoi Trident, gunmen burst into the Kandahar restaurant and reportedly took American and British nationals hostage.

Rakesh Patel, a 41-year-old Londoner working for HSBC, told the Guardian that he had been having a dinner at the Taj with two Indian colleagues when the two "very agitated" young gunmen burst in.

"They rounded up about 15 people and brought them through to the kitchen and up a fire escape to the 10th floor, where they had us against the wall," he said. "They said that they wanted to take us to the roof, and tied up two women. They were asking for any US and UK passport holders and got everyone to drop their phones on the ground. At that point there was a huge blast and in all the smoke I managed to run back down the fire escape."

On Times Now, a local television station, a British man with a soot-covered face described how two armed young men aged between 20 and 25 entered the Trident hotel restaurant in the late evening and demanded that "only American and British passport holders remain".

According to the man, 10 people were taken towards the rooftop but when smoke filled the corridors of the 18th floor, he escaped. "I ran down the stairs. Another three came down. Another five went up. I don't know what happened."

Early today commandos had begun to enter both the Taj and Trident in groups of 15 in an attempt to rescue hostages and disarm the attackers. Groups of hotel guests and staff remained holed up throughout the Taj, parts of which were on fire.

The attacks began at the Chhatrapathi Shivaji terminus (CST). The gunmen then sprayed bullets at a popular restaurant, Cafe Leopold, leaving it with bloodstains on the floor and shoes left by fleeing customers. Another three people were killed in a bomb explosion in a taxi in Mazegaon dockyard road. There were also reports of a boat packed with explosives being defused at the Gateway of India, another symbol of the country.

Indian news channels showed wreckage of bombed cars, blasted scooters, the remains of shops and broken glass strewn across the streets of south Mumbai. Armed police set up barricades around the sites of the attacks, and local people were seen shouting at each other, angry that another terror attack had hit the city.

Vehicles and street vendors' barrows were used to keep them away, and speeding military four-wheel drives with horns blaring arrived at the bomb sites.

Mumbai has frequently been hit by terrorist attacks, including a series of blasts in July 2006 that killed 187 people. In March 1993, Muslim underworld figures allegedly carried out a series of bombings in the city in which more than 200 people died.

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