India vows to get those responsible for the worst bombing in Mumbai in 13 years. Foreign governments express outrage and shock and vow (again) to combat terrorism.
And then there are the human terms: at least 186 people killed:
Eight explosions occurred in 30 minutes starting at 6 p.m., ripping through rush-hour crowds in the city of 16 million. Much of the rail network was suspended and phone services disrupted.
Police suspect the involvement of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, which seeks an end to Indian control of Jammu and Kashmir state, and the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, Press Trust of India reported, citing unidentified officials. Lashkar denied it had any role in the blasts and condemned the attacks, Agence France-Presse reported.
“It could be the Lashkar-e-Taiba but I don’t want to conjecture and mislead you,” P.S. Pasricha, director general of police in Maharashtra, told reporters in Mumbai today. “The picture will become clearer in another three to five days.”
But in the meantime there are the deaths — and those caught up in the terror and drama.
One was a young American woman.
Bloggledygook‘s Daniel Berczik recently announced he was ending his thoughtful weblog due to a new job that required no political blogging. But he decided to make some emergency entries:
His daughter Caitlin was in Bombay when the blasts occured.
Today, he ran a long email from Caitlin. It MUST be read IN FULL to be appreciated. Here is a small excerpt:
I was in a cafe, dining alone, when Kafeel texted me: ‘Babes, head home.Some chaos happening. Bomb blast. Head to Bandra, I’ll meet you there. Keeptexting me.’ So, I did as I was told. I didn’t know exactly what happened. The news was on in the cafe, and there were gasps in the room, but I don’t read Hindi. I took the first cab I found, and had to fight off a boy selling tablas who wanted a lift to Bandra with me. The ride took forever. I sat for an hour without moving in Myeem. Then it started to monsoon, which was the only time I got nervous. ‘Great,’ I thought, ‘a terrorist attack and a flood!’ My cabbie spoke no English, and my phone stopped working as the networks became clogged with people attempting to contact one another. I was marooned in more ways than one. I kept asking the cabbie, ‘Where are we?’ and he kept replying, ‘Yes.’ I gave up on asking.
I was never afraid for my life, and this is why: Firstly, I wasn’t on a train, I was in a taxi. Secondly, I thought back to 7/7 in London, and 9/11 in New York. I thought about what I would have done, had I been in either place at the time, and how I would have felt. And I realised that the fear I was feeling was only the fear of being in an unknown place…
READ THE ENTIRE POST including what she concludes about how things are and what must be done.
SOME RECENT NEWS STORIES ON THIS EVENT:
—Mumbai Inquiry Focuses On Kashmiri Group
—Indian Police Knew That Mumbai Was A Target
—Who Could Be Behind The Mumbai Blasts?
—World United In Outrage Over Mumbai Terror
—World On Alert After India Blasts
—Kashmir Remains Salt In Running Sore With India
—World Shudders
Check back for future updates and/or posts by co-bloggers on this ongoing story.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.