The New York Times
Bombs Explode on Trains in India, Killing Scores
By SOMINI SENGUPTA Published: July 11, 2006
NEW DELHI, July 11 — A string of powerful explosions ripped up and down the spine of Mumbai's commuter train system during rush hour today, bringing India's financial capital to a panicked standstill and resurrecting memories of bloodbaths past.
No firm casualty figures were available immediately. The state's top police official, P.S. Pasricha, said on Indian television that at least 70 people had died from the bomb blasts. The chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, said injuries could be as high as 300. The Associated Press reported a death toll exceeding 130.
It was quickly apparent however that the attacks were as cold-blooded as they were well-coordinated. The high-intensity blasts struck seven trains, along the western railway line of the city's commuter train line, all within minutes of one another, between 6 and 7 p.m. local time, during peak traffic. Every day, more than six million people ride the trains in Mumbai, also known as Bombay, making it among the busiest public transportation system in the world. The death toll is certainly expected to climb.
Pravin Pereira, a graphic designer, was on his way from work this evening when his train stopped at Borivali station, on the northern edge of the city, shook violently from a loud explosion. The blast, it turned out, was three compartments ahead of him.
"The sound was terrible, really terrible," Mr. Pereira, 33, said by telephone. "Everyone started running. There were a number of bodies lying there on the railway tracks."
No one has taken responsibility for the explosions. Indian officials called it a terror attack. In a statement this evening, the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, vowed to "defeat the evil designs of terrorists."
The Indian news media, however, was quick to highlight the possible involvement of Kashmiri militant groups fighting for the separation of their Muslim-majority state from India. The Mumbai attacks came hours after a number of coordinated grenade attacks by Islamist extremists killed eight people and wounded more than 40 in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Scenes of the damage in Mumbai were broadcast late today on Indian television. The images showed the wreckage of mangled trains, torn limbs and stunned, injured commuters, some with blood streaming down their faces. The healthy rushed forward to ferry the most badly wounded out of the trains. From the slums along the railroad tracks came bedsheets to be used as stretchers. To area hospitals, volunteers streamed in to donate blood.
Naresh Fernandes, the editor of Time Out Mumbai, a biweekly magazine, reported seeing dozens of wounded pouring in by taxi and rickshaw to Bhabha Hospital in suburban Bandra. Most of them were men, he said, with their pants ripped off, suggesting that a bomb may have been placed on the floor of their train compartment.
Mumbai is no stranger to terror attacks. A pair of car bombs killed about 60 people in August 2003. In March of that year, a bomb blast on a commuter train claimed 11 lives. By far the deadliest attack came in March, 1993, when synchronized bomb blasts left a death toll exceeding 250; that attack was blamed on organized crime networks in the city and led to vicious retaliatory riots. "There's a sense of subdued panic on the streets," Mr. Fernandes said by e-mail. "1993 hangs over all of this."