MUMBAI: Chaos reigned in Opera House , the hub of Mumbai's diamond trade, as mediapersons and onlookers jostled to catch a view of the destruction wreaked by an improvised explosive device, which ripped through a crowded lane just outside Prasad
Mumbai: Mumbai woke to a rainy morning in the aftermath of its first terror attack since 26/11. Despite the special hubs for tackling terror strikes, it was left exposed yet again last evening - three blasts within 12 minutes. Eighteen people have died and 131 injured. The city has been sealed and is on high alert; so are Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore.
Home Minister P Chidambaram, who reached the city last night, visited each of the three locations. He addressed the media on Thursday morning and said Mumbai had suffered a terror attack after 31 months and that the Maharashtra Police has foiled several terror attacks in this period. He again described Wednesday's serial blasts as a "coordinated terror attack," and said there had been no intelligence input this time. That, he said, did not mean that there was an intelligence failure but that the "perpetrators worked in a very clandestine manner." He said a very small group might be involved and that all groups "hostile to India" were being probed, all angles were being investigated. The Home Minister did not even rule out an attempt to derail Indo-Pak talks.
He said 17 people had died, 131 people were admitted to 13 hospitals. Of these 26 had been discharged, 82 were stable and 23 were seriously injured, some were in critical condition. He also said that one severed head had been found taking the toll to 18 - the person was yet to be identified. He said preliminary assessment showed the blast at Dadar was one of low intensity. The ones at Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House were of medium to high intensity. Ammonium nitrate was used, he said.
The Home Minister said forensic evidence had been collected and it was clear that these were not remotely triggered blasts.
Mr Chidambaram said investigating agencies were at work and there were no pre-supposition or assumption yet on who was responsible. All terror groups were being probed, all angles were being investigated.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who had called the terror strike "an attack on the heart of India," yesterday, announced compensation for victims of the blast.
Sources said earlier that seven Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) may have been used in the three blasts. At a bus stop in Dadar, the IED was planted inside an electrical box; outside the popular snack shops in Zaveri Bazaar in South Mumbai, the IED was placed on a motorcycle under an umbrella; next to Opera House, the device, police say, was placed in a ditch on the road. The three explosions occurred within twelve minutes.
Teams from the National Investigating Agency (NIA) collected forensic evidence from the locations. Special officials from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CSFL) in Hyderabad and Delhi are also handling the case.
Mumbai police blamed Wednesday's attacks on the Indian Mujahideen, a shadowy home-grown Islamist group said to have support from militants in Pakistan, according to source-based media reports that could not be independently confirmed.
The government's official press office lowered the death toll to 17 from an earlier figure of 21 killed, although the number may change again. www.jo2fresher.com
Prithviraj Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra state, told Indian TV station NDTV that the blasts occurred between 6:50 p.m. and 7:04 p.m. local time (9:20 to 9:34 a.m. ET).
Blood-covered bodies lay on Mumbai streets and people hugged and wept. Others carried the wounded to taxis. Crowds gathered in the blast areas as police questioned witnesses, and bomb squads inspected the undercarriages of vehicles searching for clues and other explosives.
Motorcycles were charred, shopfronts shattered and a bus stop ripped apart.
It was the first terrorist attack on the city since 10 militants laid siege to Mumbai for 60 hours in November 2008, killing 166 people and escalating tensions with Pakistan. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Despite the heavy rain, experts say, forensic evidence was not washed away. Samples have been safely collected and are being checked at a forensic lab in Kurla in Mumbai - the details they reveal will be shared this afternoon by investigators. The police also say security cameras opposite the bus stop at Dadar and from Opera House will provide important clues.
As the explosions stabbed Mumbai last night, the city kept its calm. Mid-day newspaper reported that the city's trains were running on time on the Central and Western lines. Mr Chavan accepted that the attacks prove that "terror groups are active and able to strike at will."
Tough lessons learnt from the city's 26/11 attacks prompted the Mumbai Police to send a mass text message to all cellphone users in the minutes after the blasts, warning people to stay indoors.
On Twitter and Facebook, strangers reached out, volunteering their homes to those lost or stuck, offering blood to hospitals and families of those injured. Under siege yet again, the city tried to protect itself.
The first blast took place at 6.54 pm in Zaveri Bazaar in South Mumbai, a crowded market named for the many small jewelry stores that fill its narrow streets. A minute later, there was an explosion at Opera House, also in South Mumbai; the final strike was at 7.06 pm near Kabutarkhana at Dadar West in Central Mumbai. www.jo2fresher.com
