The Mumbai Train Attacks

[meeran karim]

In mumbai,india recently they have been 7 explosions on the town's western railways. the attack has killed 135 people and wounded more than 300.this attack has been condemned by pervaiz musharraf,the pakistani president as a terrorist operation.it clashes with the azad kashmir elections and explosions at srinagar.WE AS CITIZENS OF THE WORLD SHOULD CONDEMN THE ATTACKS!!!

[Janus]

All I know is that there may be a showdown between Pakistan and India again. India already accuses the Pakistanis of supplying and funding these Ismalic extremist groups so there may be some trouble up ahead.

[meeran karim]

Originally posted by [email protected] 11 2006, 04:28 PM
All I know is that there may be a showdown between Pakistan and India again. India already accuses the Pakistanis of supplying and funding these Ismalic extremist groups so there may be some trouble up ahead.
Pakistan is not involved in funding terrorist groups and there is no valid evidence tht pakistan was behind the attacks

[Janus]

Pakistan has only admitted to offering these groups diplomatic support but the Indian government may turn its anger towards Pakistan.

[Delta]

may turn its anger towards Pakistan

Any thoughts on what India might do in retaliation? I couldn't imagine them doing anything that risks nuclear war.

[Janus]

Any thoughts on what India might do in retaliation?
Probably not. They might strike some targets in Kashmir or something like that. There is a possibility that this may develop into a showdown like what happened during the Indian Parliament attack back in 2001.

[Phalanx]

I haven't found who claimed responsibility for the attacks. I'm guessing it was an Islamic fundamentalist group rather than a Maoist group, but does anyone know for sure?

[Janus]

The news reports say that it was Islamic militants and bears all their trademarks.

I'm not sure if the Maoists have the capacity to inflict this type of damage.

[Kia]

Thought id post some mainstream news articles on what so far has exactly happened.

BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5169332.stm

Reuters:
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle....a_trains_bombed (http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-07-11T165628Z_01_SP141887_RTRUKOC_0_US-INDIA-BLAST.xml&src=071106_1411_TOPSTORY_india_trains_bombed)

CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/1...asts/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/11/mumbai.blasts/index.html)

It seems to be that most people view it as a Islamic Fundementalist Group since quite a few bombings have been carried out by them in the past. No one has claimed yet to have done that act though. Hopefully it is not a maoist group that has done such a horrible act of cruelty. :angry:

[Janus]

india recently they have been 7 explosions on the town's western railways
It seems that there were 8 bombs in this coordinated attack. The casualty figures are continuing to go up as I type. :(

[RedAnarchist]

I certainly hope that no leftist group is involved - this was an attack on civilians, workers - the very people our idealogy supports.

[Janus]

this was an attack on civilians, workers - the very people our idealogy supports.
The attack was clearly directed against the wealthy since all the the bombs hit first-class cars.


I'm pretty sure that it was Islamic militants as they have been responsible for incidents like this before and it bears all their trademarks.

This incident could seriously cause trouble and hamper the peace process, which is one reason for the attack of course. A showdown would probably be the worst-case scenario.

[Morag]

I wonder if the American government would be able to (shock of all shocks) play a positive role keeping the process ongoing, in spite of these attacks. They have some pull, and enough to worry about without seeing Pakistan get embroiled in a war with India. Is there any precedent which would suggest the Americans could/have dealt seriously with the Pakistan/India conflict, even after such attacks, does anyone know?

[Janus]

Is there any precedent which would suggest the Americans could/have dealt seriously with the Pakistan/India conflict, even after such attacks, does anyone know?
Yeah, during the massive showdown after the Indian Parliament attacks in late 2001. Blair was also very involved in that diplomatic effort as well.

[Dreckt]

These bombs will make Bush reinforce the "belief" that terrorism is very much alive. Like Adam Sutler said, in "V for Vendetta":

I want everyone to remember why they need us!

[Janus]

History repeats itself.

India assumes the Pakistanis are connected to the attack and the Pakistanis immediately rebute the claim.

Hopefully, something can be worked out here and a showdown can be avoided but so far it looks like this may be a bit calmer than the 2001 incident.

India warns Pakistan over terror (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5180028.stm)

[Martin Blank]

Originally posted by [email protected] 11 2006, 04:59 PM

this was an attack on civilians, workers - the very people our idealogy supports.
The attack was clearly directed against the wealthy since all the the bombs hit first-class cars.

Do you have a link for this? All of the articles I read on the subject gave me the impression that the cars hit were those carrying office workers to the center of the city.

Miles

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Right, everything I read says the same thing... that these were workers headed in during "rush hour"...

also.. remember:


It cannot be excluded that yesterday’s atrocity in Mumbai was organized or facilitated by agents provocateurs working for one of India’s intelligence agencies or that elements within the security forces allowed the terrorist attack to take place, with the aim of panicking the public into accepting increased repressive powers for the state. It is also possible that the Mumbai bombings were the work of Hindu supremacist fanatics bent on stoking up anti-Muslim violence. http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/terr-j12.shtml

[More Fire for the People]

Horrible. I am under the same impression as CommunistLeague; that the violence was worker v. worker. Anti-working class violence by one sect of the working class is the kind of thing that communists must first and foremost work against.

[Janus]

Seven blasts went off in the space of 15 minutes along Mumbai's western railway line, tearing open first-class train carriages that were packed with people travelling home from work.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060714/wl_as...DJlYmhvBHNlYwM- (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060714/wl_asia_afp/indiaattacks;_ylt=ApszkkRgI26f2EKDhma.SWBvaA8F;_yl u=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-)

I think the bombs were planted in first class carriages but since the train was packed, there were also many blue collar workers that were also killed or hurt.

[Janus]

I am under the same impression as CommunistLeague; that the violence was worker v. worker

I think the group responsible was trying to have a greater impact by targeting the wealthy Hindus on the carriages so as to harm the actual ruling class. However, explosives don't discriminate particularly in packed conditions.

[Martin Blank]

Originally posted by [email protected] 14 2006, 03:36 PM

Seven blasts went off in the space of 15 minutes along Mumbai's western railway line, tearing open first-class train carriages that were packed with people travelling home from work.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060714/wl_as...DJlYmhvBHNlYwM- (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060714/wl_asia_afp/indiaattacks;_ylt=ApszkkRgI26f2EKDhma.SWBvaA8F;_yl u=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-)

I think the bombs were planted in first class carriages but since the train was packed, there were also many blue collar workers that were also killed or hurt.
It appears that the "first class" designation is irrelevant. According to this BBC article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5170230.stm), "it is not uncommon to see the wealthiest businessman travelling alongside the poorest street trader." According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai_suburban_railway), these trains are so overloaded that thousands die each year due to the crush of the passengers.

Also, the impression I get from the Wikipedia entry on the bombings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11_July_2006_Mumbai_train_bombings) is that the "first class" designation does not mean that it is reserved for the more well-to-do Indian commuters. "All the bombs had been placed in the first-class 'general' compartments (some compartments are reserved for women, called 'ladies' compartments) of several trains running from Churchgate, the city-centre end of the western railway line, to the western suburbs of the city."

Finally, looking at this Google satellite map of Mumbai (http://www.myjavaserver.com/~mustafa/site/html/UtilityGmapWrLaunch.html), it appears that the neighborhoods where the bombs went off were areas of large apartment blocks and small single-family houses.

All of this leads me to conclude that the working class of Mumbai was the target.

Miles

[Janus]

I see.

I suppose that these militants may have intended to harm the rich but since the trains are packed so much, they ended up hurting the working class more instead. Either that or it was just indiscriminate.