Several explosions hit Indian city

[gateley]

Source: cnn.com


(CNN) -- As many as 30 people were wounded Saturday night in nine explosions at several locations in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, officials said.

The blasts occurred within a few minutes of each other between 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m., according to CNN's sister network, CNN-IBN.

No deaths were immediately reported, but 20 to 30 people were injured, officials told the network.

Video footage from the scene of one blast showed charred and twisted bicycles and motorcycles lying on the street as a crowd milled around. One explosion was at a bus stop and another at a railway station, CNN-IBN said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/26/india.blasts/index.html

[Warpy]

1. Expect this to continue and to escalate

What religious, cultural and linguistic friction failed to accomplish, expect the rise of a new moneyed class to accomplish, a wholesale revolt.

Large areas of rural east central India are now pretty much controlled by Maoist rebels. Rural people who feed the cities and haven't shared in the ostentatious new wealth of its rising robber baron class find the message of the rebels very seductive. Most, however, are simply being caught in the middle between Indian police and rebel militias--the old story.

The bottom line is that there is a movement against corporatism and the very lopsided "prosperity" in that country and that movement is getting more organized every day.

[gateley]

2. Hmm -- thanks for the insight and overview. To me,

this just came out of the blue, so I appreciate your input.

[ohio2007]

3. Are you suggesting the population should organize as a labor union ?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3409952&mesg_id=3409962
it's only about a living wage ?

between the lines thats what your comments suggest ;)
Better follow how the Indian MSM spns it imo

[varun]

4. This one was most likely carried out by Islamic extremists

in retaliation to the Godhra massacre several years ago in the same state (Many muslims were killed).

[Warpy]

5. That could very well be

but anticorporate violence is on the rise, too, as a result of the lopsided "new wealth."

Have Islamic extremists claimed responsibility? They generally do, and quickly.

[varun]

8. yes, a group called Indian Mujahiddin has claimed responsibility

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/26/india.blasts/index.html

...Several media outlets and the country's Intelligence Bureau received an e-mail purportedly from the militant group Indian Mujahedeen warning about a possible attack.

Indian Mujahedeen claimed responsibility in May for near-simultaneous bomb attacks that killed 63 people in the northwest Indian city of Jaipur. In the Jaipur claim, the group declared "open war" against India in retaliation for what it said were 60 years of Muslim persecution and the country's support of U.S. policies.

The group also claimed responsibility for near-simultaneous blasts outside courts in three northern Indian cities in the state of Uttar Pradesh in November 2007. More than a dozen people were killed and 80 injured...

...In May, security analysts described Indian Mujahedeen as a relatively unknown group. It may be a new home-grown terror network, an alias for an existing group or a foreign militant organization...

[varun]

12. Economic disparity is a problem

but most of these explosions in the last three years seem to be in BJP (right wing party) ruled states....and they are definitely anti muslim.

[Muttocracy]

6. India Times makes it sound even worse - 17 blasts - 20 dead, more injured

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Serial_blasts_in_Ahmedabad_20_killed/articleshow/3283744.cms

[Muttocracy]

7. CNN page is being updated too. nt

[PatSeg]

9. Now its 29 dead

[ohio2007]

11. video

snip
All metropolitan areas in India were put on high alert. Leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the explosions.

Several media outlets and the country's Intelligence Bureau received an e-mail purportedly from the militant group Indian Mujahedeen warning about a possible attack.

Indian Mujahedeen claimed responsibility in May for near-simultaneous bomb attacks that killed 63 people in the northwest Indian city of Jaipur. In the Jaipur claim, the group declared "open war" against India in retaliation for what it said were 60 years of Muslim persecution and the country's support of U.S. policies.


snip
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f7c_1217099532

latest attacks;
17 blasts in 70 minutes. All bombs had a common link;
They all had the same type of "ball bearings" said police.

[JustAnotherGen]

10. Oh

I better call one of my employees. For some reason it's sticking in my head that his parents still live there and specifically in that city.

Thanks!

[varun]

13. Terrorist Attacks Unsettling India - NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/world/asia/28india.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Over the past several years, terrorist attacks in India have become all too common. In eastern Varanasi, a deadly explosion interrupted Hindu devotees as they lit oil lamps to Hanuman, the monkey god, one Tuesday at dusk. In southern Hyderabad, a homemade bomb planted inside a historic mosque killed worshipers on a Friday afternoon. In Mumbai, India’s largest city, nearly 200 commuters on packed city trains died in a series of blasts.

And, in the most recent attack, 17 back-to-back explosions struck shoppers and strollers on Saturday evening in Ahmedabad in western India, and then two blasts hit the very hospitals where the wounded and their relatives rushed for help, killing 49 people and wounding more than 200.

The targets seem to have nothing in common except that they are ordinary places that are easy to strike. In a country long familiar with sharply focused violence — whether sectarian or fueled by insurgencies in Kashmir in the 1990s — the impersonal nature of the latest violence is new and deeply unsettling.

Officials have said the attacks are attempts to provoke violence between Hindus and Muslims that have not succeeded so far. Yet virtually none of the attacks have resulted in convictions; a suspect in the Varanasi bombings was shot and killed by the police....

[varun]

14. 18 bombs defused in Surat; 3 suspects detained

Mre bombs discovered...in the heart of Diamond cutting area of another city - Surat.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/18_bombs_defused_in_Surat_3_detained/articleshow/3300863.cms

SURAT/AHMEDABAD: Terror clouds hung ominously over the diamond city of Surat as 18 bombs ticking in residential areas were defused by police which suspected a sinister design to spread panic in the state. ( Watch )

Three suspects - Abdul Qadir, Hasil Mohammad and Hussain Ibrahim - were detained near Limbi on Rajkot-Ahmedabad highway in Surendranagar district while they were leaving Ahmedabad soon after Saturday's synchronised blasts that took several lives and left over 145 injured.

Their possible links with outlawed SIMI and 'Indian Mujahideen', which has warned of more terror strikes, are being investigated, police said...