Posted on 08/25/2003 12:17:45 PM PDT by bedolido
Detonators have been found on a rail track near Mumbai after at least 50 people were killed and more than 100 injured when two large car bombs rocked the Indian city.
Several sleepers had also been removed and used to block the tracks on a line being used by millions of pilgrims headed to a major Hindu festival, railway police have said.
A trainload of pilgrims was halted after the detonators were found.
Officials initially said there had been four blasts in the city, also known as Bombay, but it was later confirmed there had been two - one at the historic Gateway of India site and another at a busy bullion market near a Hindu temple.
Pictures shown on Star TV in India showed widespread carnage, with rubble and debris scattered across one street and many cars destroyed after one of the attacks.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the Indian government pointed the finger at the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, which has blamed for previous attacks.
'Huge explosion'
Tamanna Inandar said there was one "huge" explosion in the car park of the Gateway of India, an historic tourist site.
TV footage showed damaged cars littering the car park with patches of blood and shoes also scattered across the concrete.
Other reports suggested people had been thrown into the sea by the force of the blast.
The window panes of the neighbouring Taj Mahal hotel, a popular tourist hotel, were blown out, although footage from the scenes showed the hotel largely undamaged.
Another bomb is believed to have gone off in a taxi near the Mumba Devi Hindu temple in central Mumbai.
Most of the deaths occurred in the market next to the temple.
Both bombs are believed to have been carried in taxis.
Militants
The blasts are just the latest in a series of attacks on the city.
The Indian government has repeatedly blamed Pakistan for not doing enough to rein in Islamic militants, although there has been a thaw in relations between the two governments following last year's nuclear stand-off when 1m troops were mobilised in a row over the disputed Kashmir territory.
The worst attack was in 1993 when 250 people were killed in 13 simultaneous blasts launched by Muslim militants.
Pakistan immediately condemned today's attack.
Indian political expert Shuresh Joshi told Sky News the blasts were an attempt by Islamic terrorists to "keep their fires burning" as relations between Pakistan and India improve.
Soft target
"I do not believe the Pakistani government would harbour or encourage these groups but they do have some sympathy," he said.
"Relations between Pakistan and India are getting better. If they do get better then the terrorists get insecure and they want to keep their fires burning."
He added: "Bombay is important economically and is also a soft target compared to say Delhi. It was targeted to paralyse the Indian economy."
The attacks coincided with the release by Indian archaeologists of a report on a violently disputed religious site.
They said a medieval Hindu temple had been found under the foundations of the Islamic shrine razed by Hindus in 1992.
The dispute has been blamed for previous violence in Mumbai with both Hindus and Muslims laying claim to the site.
Last Updated: 18:47 UK, Monday August 25, 2003
The Hindus can maintain their balance of terror against the Muslims by butchering a large number of them, which will decrease the rate of attacks like this in the future (but not their likelihood--Muslim terrorism is guaranteed to happen for a long, long time)
You and me both.
So this was to attack a train-load of Indian Hindus on their way to a festival.
Let's think, who would have done that?......Hmmmm, that's a hard question......I give up. Let's blame it on the CIA or the Mossad as usual. /sarcasm
Any religion that has to resort to suicide bombing to get its views across has a serious PR problem. Unless Islamic clerics can rein in the bombers, their religion isn't going to last the century.
The road map for peace runs over their larynxes.
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