Bomb Attacks in Western India: Who Did It?
While Indian leaders have appealed for calm after a series of co-ordinated bombings ripped through the Western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Saturday, leaving at least 45 people dead and more than 100 wounded, some things about the bombings make little sense, says The Independent.
“While Gujarat – whose recently re-elected Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, has been accused of allowing the 2002 killings to take place – is the centre of Hindu-nationalist, or so-called ‘saffron’ politics, many of Saturday’s bombs went off in Ahmedabad’s old quarter, which has a largely Muslim population. Some were set off near a hospital.
“Indian media said the organisation (behind the attack) is believed to be a coalition of three well-known militant groups – the Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Harkat ul-Jihad-al-Islami – but there was no independent confirmation of that.
“Despite widespread speculation over the bombers’ identity, the Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, refused to point the finger of blame. Arriving in Ahmedabad yesterday, he told reporters: ‘I do not wish to blame anyone right now, this is not in my capacity … It will not be right to give you half-baked information now. After we have received all details, we will shall inform you’.”
The New York Times says: “Over the past several years, terrorist attacks in India have become an everyday presence in everyday places. The targets seem to have nothing in common except that they are ordinary and brazenly easy to strike.” More here…
