INDIA/PAKISTAN: Over 160 people killed and hundreds wounded after bombs explode on packed commuter trains and stations in Mumbai

Record ID: 1372236

  • Title: INDIA/PAKISTAN: Over 160 people killed and hundreds wounded after bombs explode on packed commuter trains and stations in Mumbai
  • Date: 12th July 2006
  • Summary: (BN11) MUMBAI, INDIA (JULY 11, 2006) (ANI) (NIGHTSHOTS) VARIOUS OF CROWDS GATHERED OUTSIDE HOSPITAL / AMBULANCES (7 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2006 11:22
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA1KZ1Y25GFX4DJY6VVS9CZXHK7
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Bombs exploded on packed commuter trains and stations in India's financial hub, Mumbai, on Tuesday (July 11), killing over 160 people and wounding hundreds, officials said.
    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the seven bomb explosions that took place within about 10 minutes during evening rush hour.
    But suspicion was likely to centre on Muslim militants fighting New Delhi's rule in disputed Kashmir, who have been blamed for several bomb attacks in India in the past.
    Commuters fled suburban rail stations in panic after the explosions and mobile phone lines were jammed. Hundreds of dazed passengers walked along the railway tracks.
    Television showed twisted rail carriages and people in torn, blood-stained clothes carrying the dead and wounded on stretchers as steady monsoon rain fell. A policeman was shown carrying two white, blood-stained bundles of what appeared to be body parts.
    At peak hours, each nine-car passenger train in Mumbai carries over 4,500 people, about three times the rated capacity.
    Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for calm and Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Congress party, expressed her grief.
    Shivraj Patil, Federal Home (Interior) Minister, called for calm.
    "We will work to defeat the evil designs of terrorists and will not allow them to succeed. I urge the people to remain calm not to believe in rumours and carry on their activities normally. The government will take all possible measures to maintain law and order and defeat the forces of terrorism," he said.
    The United States, the EU, France and Britain condemned the explosions.
    The blasts occured on five trains and at two stations in Mumbai's western suburbs, which are linked to the downtown office and business areas mainly by an overground rail network that is used by some 6.5 million people each day.
    Railway authorities suspended all suburban train services in the city after the blasts.
    Dazed survivors with wounds from injuries to heads, legs and hands waited at railway stations, with little sign of any emergency medical aid.
    The first attack took place at 6.24 p.m. (1154 GMT) with the others following in quick succession.
    Pakistan's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz strongly condemned the "terrorist attack" in Mumbai.
    Mumbai, a metropolis of about 17 million formerly known as Bombay, has been hit by bomb blasts in the past decade.
    More than 250 people died in a string of bomb explosions in the city in 1993 for which authorities blamed the city's underworld criminal gangs. Those attacks followed the demolition of a mosque in the Hindu holy city of Ayodhya.
  • Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
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