Indian PM vows swift justice for Mumbai victims (AFP)

MUMBAI (AFP) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday vowed that those responsible for a series of bomb blasts that killed 17 in Mumbai would be tracked down and prosecuted, as he visited the injured.

"Perpetrators of (the) Mumbai blasts shall be pursued relentlessly and brought to justice quickly," the premier said on a tour of city hospitals treating some of the more than 130 wounded in Wednesday's blasts.

Investigators are banking on security camera footage to pinpoint who was behind the wave of explosions, which happened within 15 minutes in two crowded commercial areas of south Mumbai and a central residential district.

Police said that the bombs were made of ammonium nitrate -- an ingredient for fertiliser commonly used in improvised devices.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram earlier said there had been no intelligence of an impending attack and in the absence of any group claiming responsibility, the net of suspicion was flung far and wide.

"All groups hostile to India are on the radar. We are not ruling out anything, we are not ruling in anything. We are looking at everyone," he said after visiting the scene of the three blasts.

"I think they chose the places because of the density of the population and the very congested nature of these areas," he added. "They chose places where even a low-intensity blast could have a great impact."

Chidambaram's department said early on Thursday evening that 13 people were in a critical condition.

Specialist forensic teams, flown in from other cities, combed the blast sites for evidence, but Rakesh Maria, head of the Maharashtra state anti-terrorism squad, said monsoon rains were hampering their work.

Maria declined to speculate on who might be responsible for the blasts and said investigators hoped security camera footage images obtained from all three locations would provide them with a lead.

Crime branch officers have been looking at the footage since last night.

"It's quite a long-drawn process," Maria said, while appealing for public "faith and trust" in the police.

"No matter where the accused are, we will identify and bring them to book," he said.

The Home Ministry said police were interrogating suspected members of the homegrown militant group Indian Mujahideen who were arrested in Mumbai several days ago in connection with bomb blasts in the western state of Gujarat in 2008.

The strongest of Wednesday's coordinated explosions hit busy jewellery trading districts in south Mumbai, close to the same area targeted in the traumatic 2008 assault blamed on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.

The memory of 60 hours of mayhem when 10 gunmen rampaged through the main railway station and luxury hotels, killing 166, is still fresh in the minds of Mumbaikars.

Salim Dharolia, a diamond trader who was waiting to collect the body of his son at the Saifee hospital, asked why more blood had been shed in his city.

"I have lost my only son. He got married two months ago," he told AFP. "Why are people of Mumbai being targeted all the time? What is our crime?"

Relatives gathered at the 13 city hospitals where victims were transferred in ambulances, cars and trucks driven by locals who rushed to help.

Among the dead was real estate agent R.K. Shah, 47, whose distraught wife had identified his body at Saifee hospital.

"He was scheduled to show two shops for rent to his clients," Pratika Shah told AFP. "Before leaving home, he had told me that he would host a big party for his friends if the deals materialised.

"I still can't believe that he is dead," she said.

The blasts came before a visit to India by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton next Tuesday and peace talks between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers scheduled for New Delhi in the last week of July.

India's foreign ministry spokesman said the talks would go ahead.

The United States and the United Nations led international condemnation of the attacks, with Clinton calling them "despicable" and vowing to go ahead with her trip.

The last major bombing in India was in February last year in Pune, when a blast at a packed restaurant killed 16 people including several foreigners.

In 2006, a series of high-powered blasts on suburban trains in Mumbai killed 187 commuters and left 800 injured -- an attack that India also blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

India broke off a peace dialogue with Pakistan after the 2008 assaults and talks between the two nuclear-armed rivals only resumed earlier this year.

View the original article here

Multiple blasts kill 13 in Mumbai 'terror' strikes (AFP)

MUMBAI (AFP) – Three simultaneous blasts rocked India's financial hub Mumbai on Wednesday evening, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 80 in what the government called a "coordinated" terror strike.

"I have been informed that 13 are dead, and 81 injured," Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan told reporters.

Mumbai police confirmed three blasts, one in central Mumbai and two in the south of the city, which is still scarred by the militant attacks of 2008 blamed on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"This was a coordinated attack by terrorists," Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi.

"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," Chidambaram said, adding that federal investigative teams were being rushed to the city.

The targets included a predominantly middle class residential area, a wholesale gold market and a building housing diamond traders and jewellery shops, with the explosions reported at rush-hour, at around 6:30pm (1300 GMT).

"It is clear that the attackers wanted to hurt as many as people as possible. A lot of people are injured," a minister in the Maharashtra state government, Chhagan Bhujbal, told reporters.

In November 2008, 10 Islamist militants attacked multiple targets in Mumbai, including five-star hotels, in a deadly assault that killed 166 people.

India blamed the the Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the assault and broke off a peace dialogue with Islamabad. Talks between the two nuclear-armed rivals only resumed earlier this year.

Eyewitnesses outside the diamond trader building in South Mumbai said a car bomb had exploded at around 6:45 pm (1315 GMT) when the area was packed with office people returning home from work.

"There were lots of people badly injured. We don't know how many are dead but it was a very big blast," Nimesh Mehta, 38, who runs a local food stall, told AFP.

"It was a cowardly attack," said Ravinder Singh, 48, the owner of a spare parts shop. "These were innocent people. Poor as well as rich."

The last major bombing incident in India was in February last year in the western city of Pune, when a blast at a packed restaurant killed nine people including one foreigner.

In 2006, a series of seven high-powered blasts on suburban trains in Mumbai killed 187 commuters and left 800 injured -- an attack that India also blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Islamabad swiftly condemned Wednesday's attacks in a statement issued by the Pakistani foreign ministry.

View the original article here

India: Terror attack kills 17, wounds 81 in Mumbai (AP)

By RAJESH SHAH and MUNEEZA NAQVI, Associated Press Rajesh Shah And Muneeza Naqvi, Associated Press – 3?mins?ago

MUMBAI, India – Near-simultaneous bomb blasts rocked three busy neighborhoods during evening rush hour in India's busy financial capital Wednesday, killing 17 people in what the government called an apparent terrorist attack on the city besieged by militants nearly three years ago.

Blood-covered bodies lay on the streets and people hugged and wept. Others carried the wounded to taxis. Crowds gathered in the blast areas as police questioned witnesses, and bomb squads inspected the undercarriages of vehicles searching for clues and other explosives.

Motorcycles were charred, shopfronts shattered and a bus stop ripped apart. A photograph showed victims crowding into the back of a cargo truck to be taken to a hospital.

The first blast struck the Jhaveri Bazaar at 6.54 p.m., tearing through the famed jewelry market. A minute later, a second blast hit the busy business district of Opera House, several miles (kilometers) away in southern Mumbai. At 7:05 p.m., the third bomb exploded in the crowded neighborhood of Dadar in central Mumbai, according to police.

Because of the close timing of the bomb blasts, "we infer that this was a coordinated attack by terrorists," Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.

Indian officials refused to speculate on who might be behind the blasts. Past attacks have been blamed on Pakistan-based militants, and Indian officials have accused Pakistan's powerful spy agency of helping coordinate and fund some of those strikes, including the Mumbai siege.

A U.S. official says there are no claims of responsibility, or firm indication of which terrorist group might be behind the attack at this time. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

"The entire city of Mumbai has been put on high alert," Chidambaram said. "I would appeal to the people of Mumbai and people all over the country to remain calm and to maintain peace."

An eyewitness at Jhaveri Bazaar described two motorcycles exploding in flames and saw at least six bodies.

"People were shouting 'Help me, help me,'" the man told Headlines Today television.

Another witness showed cell phone clips of several bodies sprawled across the street to the NDTV news station.

Prithviraj Chavan, the top official in the state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai was located, said the blasts killed 17 people and wounded 81 others. Chidambaram said the toll was likely to rise.

The blasts marked the first major attack on Mumbai since 10 militants laid siege to India's financial capital for 60 hours in November 2008.

That attack, which targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station, killed 166 people and escalated tensions between India and Pakistan. Peace talks were suspended and resumed only recently.

Pakistan's government expressed distress on the loss of lives and injuries soon after Wednesday's blasts were reported.

Some media incorrectly reported the blasts happened on the birthday of Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving gunmen from the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Kasab, who was sentenced to death in Mumbai, was born on Sept. 13.

Mumbai has been on edge since the 2008 attack. In December, authorities deployed extra police on city streets after receiving intelligence that a Pakistan-based militant group was planning an attack over New Year's weekend. Police conducted house-to-house searches in some neighborhoods for four men who authorities believe entered the city to carry out a terrorist attack, and computer-aided photographs of the four suspects were released.

In March 2010, Mumbai police said they prevented a major terrorist strike after they arrested two Indian men, who, police said, were preparing to hit several targets in the city. In September, police issued a terror alert for the city during a popular Hindu festival.

___

Naqvi reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writers Ravi Nessman in New Delhi and Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.

View the original article here