2006 Mumbai Bombings

tom_fr

From Bloomberg Professional station:

India's Commercial Hub Mumbai Rocked by 5 Explosions (Update2)
2006-07-11 10:13 (New York)

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- India's commercial hub Mumbai was
rocked by at least five explosions on the city's suburban train
network during the evening rush hour, with television channels
reporting as many as eight deaths.
``So far we have confirmation of five blasts, ambulances
have been dispatched to the blast sites,'' said Vijay Vaidya,
spokesman of Mumbai's disaster management cell. ``We don't have
confirmation of any deaths.''
About 6.1 million people everyday use Mumbai's suburban
train system, an extension of the first railway to be built by
the British in the Indian subcontinent 153 years ago. Mumbai is
home to India's biggest equity and money markets, the central
bank, companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd. and the
country's busiest port.
The London Underground, the suburban transport system for
the U.K. capital, carries 976 million passengers annually,
according to the Web site of Transport for London.
As many as eight people have been killed, the Star News
television channel reported, citing eyewitnesses. Some
television channels have reported as many as seven blasts.
``Casualties could be high as this is peak hour,'' said A.D.
Jhandwal, Mumbai's chief fire officer. Fire tenders have reached
some of the blast sites and the wounded have been taken to
hospitals in and around the suburbs closest to the railway
station, Jhandwal said.
Phone networks in the city were jammed following the
explosions and calls from New Delhi to Mumbai were hampered.

Prime Minister

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting
of home ministry officials to discuss the blasts in Mumbai today
at 7:30 p.m., said Y.S.R. Murthy, a spokesman at the prime
minister's office.
The airport at Mumbai, India's busiest, has been put on
``high alert,'' Praful Patel, India's civil aviation minister,
said in a phone interview. ``We have to remain alert. Security
is being tightened all over,'' Patel said.
Local trains carrying commuters to Mumbai suburbs have been
stopped, the CNBC-TV18 television channel reported, citing a
spokesman of the Western Railway unit of Indian Railways.
Police have issued a general alert in Mumbai city,
according to the police control room.
Trains are overcrowded in the evening, when office-goers
use the suburban services to commute from the business district
in southern Mumbai to residential areas in the city's north.
Passengers jumped out of carriages packed with commuters during
the evening rush hour, the Aaj Tak television channel said,
citing eyewitnesses.

New Delhi Blasts

The blasts come after the capital New Delhi was rocked by
three explosions on Oct. 29 that killed at least 59 people. The
blasts took place in crowded market areas with people shopping
for the festivals of Diwali and Id.
About 200 people died in a series of blasts in the Bombay
Stock Exchange and elsewhere in Mumbai in 1993. India's Central
Bureau of Investigation says on its Web site that Dawood
Ibrahim is wanted for the blasts. The U.S. Treasury Department
on its Web site calls Ibrahim an Indian crime lord with
connections to al-Qaeda.
The blasts have been reported from Mahim, Khar, Mira Road,
Jogeshwari and Matunga Road, the police control room said. Aaj
Tak said blasts had also taken place at Bhayandar and Bandra.
Rescue and relief efforts have been hampered by heavy
monsoon rains in Mumbai, the CNN-IBN television channel said.
Mumbai generates about 5 percent of India's gross domestic
product and contributes more than one-third of the country's tax
revenues, according to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region
Development Authority. More than 10 million daily passenger
trips are provided by the suburban railway and the state-run bus
service, according to the authority.

--With reporting by Kartik Goyal in New Delhi. Editor: Mohideen.

anu_k

Explosions on trains usually have very high number of casualties... If Madrid and London are anything to go by.
I am very saddened to say that I fear both casualties and fatalities will be high.

Only last week I stood outside my office in London observing 2 minutes of silence in memory of all those that died in terror attacks on public transport here last year.
The horror of it is all too real again.
It is a sad sad day indeed.

greenchutney

this does not look good. expect the casualities go to higher..

Digital Drifter

Where's Aadil? & the rest of the Junta?

A head count please!

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TerryM

phone lines are working just called my sisters-in-laws (on there cells) everybody is safe.

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greenchutney

Eyewitness reports from rediff writeins:-

I was just entering Borivali station when I heard a blast. I was on my way to Churchgate.
I went onto the bridge and I saw the blast had happened in the 1st class compartment next to the ladies 1st class compartment. The whole second gate of the 1st class was popped up like a popcorn flake.
The situation is beyond description. I could see charred bodies of four men and one woman being taken away on stretchers. I think they were dead.
I caught a rickshaw back to office, which I thought is a safer place.
Nobody was accompanying the bodies, which were being carried in an auto rickshaw. One body fell out of the rickshaw on the turning of the Chamunda circle. A few women on the road fainted seeing the condition of the body.
It was really a horrendous scene.

-Kishan Joshi, Borivali

aadil

Getting ready to go to work in the night shift now and I just received news about the blasts and will now have to take a taxi to the airport!!! Hope everything will be under control soon and there are no more casualties. Gotta go now!!!

Aadil.

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Your goal, the sky,
Your aim, the stars!!!

navinkurian2002

Why me!!! F***k .Just coming back from malad and passed jogeshwari and an ambulance passed me with all these dead bodies with all their flesh torn .Feeling sick to the core .

outta here !

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aadil

That's life my friend, live it or leave it!!! Sad that it has happened so soon out here with the riots the other day and now this. But I guess life goes on!!!

Aadil.

mridula

Sad, real sad.

__________________
Mridula

Travel Tales from India

DaDrifter

Terrible tragedy ... some channels are reporting more than 100 dead. Just tried calling some friends, all telephone lines are jammed.

Stay safe Aadil and keep us posted.

Nick-H

BBC reporting 70-plus dead. As someone said, the final count is always worse.

Apparently rain is making problems.

It is amazing how up-to-the minute IM is: I've just been watching this on the TV and it is well reported here already. I guess it is on worldwide news though.

Glad to hear from aadil, thoughts with any other Mumbai IMers.

navinkurian: what can we say? Life is precious....

shere

A very sad day.

Poor people going about their day to day lives caught up in this shit.

It is time the government pulled their finger out and took direct action against those responsible. When terrorists hit parliament it spurred the government to amass the army in offensive positions. When ordinary janta are hit they appear to be content to dole out compensation and visit hospitals. No action is ever taken when the public are killed in such terrorist outrages.

docgirl2005

"Life" doesnt HAVE to be that way. Its certain people who make mistakes that cause life to be that way. Stop the culprits..a live it or leave it policy isnt the answer...finding those types and punishing them is the answer. Victims havent even been identified yet by loved ones and it seems somewhat cruel to tell others to leave it..sorry to say.

hyderabad_ki_sher

The Govt must give every citizen of India the power to kill terrorists leaving the hellhole interrogations,court proceedings,appeals in higher corts etc.

Atleast that power has to be given to police and army.

Shoot at site is the only answer to terrorism.