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Not Silent, Not At All


Sepia Mutiny is upset with the silence in the blogosphere over the Mumbai train tragedy. All I can say is we put it on the front page, and the moment I heard the news I emailed my friend Rajesh (an Agonist reader since early '03) to make sure he and all his family were ok. They were.

How do I feel about the attacks? Who ever perpetrated them deserves whatever crime Indian justice deems fit to mete out. As to American media coverage? Well, yeah it sucks when it comes to covering international news. What do you think we have been trying to cover here at The Agonist for the last few years? Just read the Newswire, or check out our South-West Asia Section or Afghanistan Section. We may skew too Ameri-centric from time to time, but we sure beat the hell out of the local paper's international coverage (unless it's Mexico, then of course, the SAEN is excellent).

That's the point of blogistan. We're here to fill in the gaps the big top-down corporate media can't.


Sean-Paul Kelley July 13, 2006 - 12:12am
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( categories: Opinion )

What kind of a question are,

they posing on their website, “If the terrorism can be traced to Pakistan?” Why "IF?"

Long standing history between Pakistan/India.

As soon as I heard the railway in India had been bombed, the first nation I thought of was Pakistan. They have long-standing acrimony between them. Pakistan was craved from India. Terrorists have been killing in India before the war on terror started.

Attacks linked to al-Qaeda

Headline at the Scotsman, “Group linked to al-Qaeda is main suspect in Indian train bombings”.

Where does Sepia Mutiny think al-Qaeda is? Didn’t they know they’re currently in Waziristan, possibly in South rather than North Waziristan Pakistan has training camps, al-Qaeda and Taleban terrorists.

Last I heard Bin Laden was on dialysis and was thought to be rather ill.

canuck July 13, 2006 - 6:26am
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Police sketch Mumbai terrorists

sidenote: one of our kitchen managers is from Mumbai, he said that family and friends say the death toll is over 400

Police sketch Mumbai terrorists

New Delhi (dpa) - Indian police and security agencies detained 200 people and prepared sketches of four suspects as part of their investigation into serial blasts carried out by terrorists in Mumbai, police and local news reports said Thursday.

At least 186 people were killed and 772 people injured in seven powerful explosions on the city's suburban train network on July 11. The PTI news agency, however, reported that the death toll had mounted to 200.

Police said nearly 200 people were detained during widespread search operations in the city, many of them from the Malwani area in the western suburbs, since Wednesday night.

Of them, 20 were still being questioned by teams from the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and local police who were trying to build on the leads they gathered on Wednesday to track down the bombers.

"Sketches of four suspects seen at some of the bomb sites have been prepared and we are working on several leads," Mumbai Police chief AN Roy told IANS news agency.

The ATS also questioned activists of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who were suspected to have executed the blasts with the help of terror organization Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT, Army of the Pure), the PTI news agency reported.

The LeT, allegedly based in Pakistan, has relied on the SIMI network in the past. The youth organization, which was banned by India in 2001, had provided logistics and support to the LeT members during a string of blasts in the city during 2002 to 2003.

The LeT-SIMI combine was also suspected in twin blasts in Mumbai in August 2003 which claimed over 50 lives.

Police were also trying to determine SIMI members who had gone missing - as it would provide vital leads in the investigation.

But the SIMI denied their involvement in the attacks. Speaking to Zee News network, SIMI's erstwhile president, Shahid Badr, described Tuesday's blasts as crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile, militants continued attacks on Hindus in India's northern Jammu and Kashmir, which have been hit by a separatist Muslim insurgency.

more at Bangkok Post

Tina July 13, 2006 - 8:28am
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Sounds like "caste" "class" warfare to me.

The havenots are sick of the haves. India denies it but the caste system still exists. Go there and you will see.

Bucksouth July 13, 2006 - 10:43am
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I wouldn't rule out the possibility, since...

I lack the information from the necesary sources, but I would count it as a 'slim to no chance', and Islamic/Kashmiri terrorism a much more likely probability.
Apparently, this attack, according to police statements made so far, seems to have hallmarks of the work of Kashmiri separatists.

As the Pakistani Intelligence is up to its eyeballs in the Kashmir rebellion, it follows the Pakistan likely also had a hand in the attack, at the very least providing the explosives and detonators, and possibly even training.

I have a bad feeling that nihilists in Pakistani intelligence might be trying to start a war in Kashmir (4 wars have been fought there previously, since 1947), so that the nukes can be trotted out, and they can claim either victory or martyrdon for Allah
-5.75,-4.05 "The invisible hand of Adam Smith seems to offer an extended middle finger to an awful lot of people"---George Carlin

justadood July 13, 2006 - 11:39am
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Police detain 20 over Mumbai bombings

Tim Sullivan, Mumbai
July 14, 2006

POLICE have detained about 20 people over the Mumbai train bombings as India pointed the finger at Kashmiri militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba as the prime suspect.

Investigators have also prepared sketches of three suspects seen at the sites of the bomb attacks, which killed 186 people and wounded more than 700.

"So far it looks like there was a substantial involvement of Lashkar-e-Taiba with local support," said D. K. Shankaran, the most senior bureaucrat in the Maharashtra State Government. Mumbai is the state capital.

Police questioned about 350 people in a broad sweep to gather information on Tuesday's co-ordinated bombings. Most were from Malwani, a north-eastern suburb of Mumbai.

Police inspector S. Goshal said none had been formally arrested or charged, and they were questioned to help with the investigations.

Mumbai Police Commissioner A. N. Roy confirmed that a large number of people had been taken into custody but refused to give an exact figure.

"There have been widespread search operations," he said. "This is all part of a large-scale investigation. We have questioned 250 to 300 people as part of the investigations in two days. Around 20 people have been detained at various places."

He said those caught in the sweep included known thugs, gangsters and troublemakers who might have information about the bombers.

The arrests came a day after the police chief of Maharashtra said investigators were looking into a possible link with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group fighting for independence from India for Kashmir.

Lashkar has in the past employed near-simultaneous explosions to attack Indian cities.

A spokesman for Lashkar, Abdullah Ghaznavi, denied the group was involved, saying in a statement that "Indian security forces blame Lashkar in an attempt to defame the Kashmir freedom struggle."

Investigators said they had prepared sketches of three suspects seen at some of the bomb sites and were working on leads.

Police believe the bombers hid explosives in overhead luggage racks in first-class compartments and detonated them using timers.

"We can be sure only after the forensic and ballistic results, but so far it looks like crude electrical timers were used," a senior Mumbai policeman said.

Tuesday's attacks on evening rush-hour railway carriages and stations happened in the space of just 11 minutes.

Yesterday, relatives and friends of victims were trying to identify mutilated and charred bodies by personal belongings.

But the bustling city was back on track with tens of thousands of people jamming commuter trains.

"The city has faced attacks in the past. It has always bounced back quickly … people have to go to work. What else are we going to do?" said Ashwini Lolo, an office worker in his 20s, waiting at the Bandra station to board a train.

His voice was drowned out by announcements on the station's public address system as the brown-and-yellow trains travelled past with people hanging out the doors, like every other day on India's railways.

The Age (Australia)

-----

Juan Cole speculates:

The likelihood is that the sophisticated coordinated attack on the trains in India's western commercial hub of Mumbai (Bombay) was carried out by al-Qaeda-linked groups seeking the independence of Muslim-majority Kashmir from India.

It is also possible that they are seeking, as Peter Bergen suggested on CNN, to encourage Hindus to attack Muslims, which will stampede the Muslims of India into the embrace of radical Islam (not a taste most of them have had in the past). Frustrated extremists are always trying to think up ways to make others feel their frustration and join their cause.

In other words, the best counter-terrorism India could do in this instance is to practice restraint and, after a decent interval, to go back to the negotiating table with Pakistan over Kashmir.

----

canuck July 13, 2006 - 12:19pm
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Short history of

Kashmir Dispute

Map Kasmir: (very small letters under and to the right of "Kashmir Region" is 'Afghanistan')

Wikipedia entry for Kashsmir

canuck July 13, 2006 - 12:58pm
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