21 killed in Mumbai bombings

Three bombings today in India’s financial capital of Mumbai have killed 21 people and wounded scores more in the first major attack in the country since the terror assault on the city in November 2008.

The bombs were detonated over a period of 30 minutes. The first blast took place at the Zaveri Bazaar near a Hindu temple, the second in a taxi at Dadar, and the third at Mumbai’s Opera House. The bombs were detonated in areas and at times that ensured a maximum number of civilian casualties, according to Indian officials.

Twenty-one people have been killed and more than 130 have been wounded, according to The Times of India.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the so-called Indian Mujahideen is the prime suspect. India’s Intelligence Bureau has previously denied that the Indian Mujahideen exists. Instead the Bureau has claimed the terror group is a creation of the Bangladesh-based Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, or HUJI-B, an al Qaeda affiliate. HUJI-B created the Indian Mujahideen to confuse investigators and cover the tracks of the Students Islamic Movement of India, or SIMI, which provides logistics for the attacks.

SIMI is a front group for the Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Lashkar-e-Taiba inside India. It receives support from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and is an al Qaeda affiliate. SIMI provides logistical support for attacks in India.

Mumbai was the scene of the November 2008 terror assault that was carried out by a team of Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives who were trained in Pakistan. The terror assault shut down Mumbai for three days as Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives fanned out and struck multiple targets, including hotels, a train station, a police station, and a Jewish center. The terrorists killed 166 people during the siege. Pakistan’s ISI has been directly implicated in the attack.

Today’s attack in Mumbai is rumored by The Times of India to be a “birthday present” for Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving member of the suicide assault team. Kasab, a Pakistani member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, was born on July 13, 1987. Kasab has been convicted of murder by an Indian court and has been sentenced to death.

Sources:

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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27 Comments

  • Aditya says:

    Without wasting anytime kill all evil forces with the help of all the world’s army.. First give chance to the birthday boy….Kasab the Idiot.

  • andrew says:

    I see a lot of restraint coming from the Indian government. If I were a Mumbai citizen I would NOT be happy about this situation.
    India is looking weaker as each bombing goes by in Indian territory by foreign nationals. There is no doubt that most likely the ISI Directorate S has a hand in this. They already orchestrated the 2008 Mumbai attacks and embassy bombings in Afghanistan. Whats to stop them from attacking further?
    The ISI (Directorate S) must be contained. The USG should stop coddling Pakistan, and show more stick.

  • c.srikar says:

    pls help the mumbai peopels and catch the blostades
    thanku police and doctors

  • jean says:

    RC East should issue a warno:
    Be prepared Conduct SAR mission vincty border area/ Kunar/Nanagahar, Khost. IOT recover Indain Pilots.
    I doubt the SECSTATE will be successful talking the Indains out of a counter strike.

  • c.srikar says:

    pls help the mumbai peopels and catch the blostades
    thanku police and doctors

  • gerald says:

    Perfect timing on distancing ourselves from Pakistan. Now we don’t have to take sides when India kicks the crap out of them. and as an added bonus,it gives the jihadist a new target to vent their woefully displaced anger on.

  • James says:

    I hope that India pounces on you for this oh Pakistan.
    If it were up to me, we would have done so ages ago.
    As I have emphasized many many times before on this board, the ‘key’ to peace and stability in that region is (and always has been) India; certainly NOT Pakistan.
    It’s time (in fact, it’s long overdue) for US to forge an alliance with India in the overal WOT.
    I can only hope that our intelligence people and India’s are presently working in unison behind the scenes.
    It’s longer an issue of ‘IF,’ it’s now an issue of ‘WHEN’ these thugs get their hands on a nuclear warhead (or more) and what we, India, and the rest of the civilized world (which obviously they are not part of) are going to do about it.

  • Charu says:

    My condolences to the victims of state-sponsored terrorism from next door, and the uncaring pusillanimous state that they are citizens of.
    It was just a matter of time when this took place, since Pakistan had done nothing to take down its state terrorist network since the 2008 attack. LeT and HUJI still operate openly in the terrorist state, and mobsters/financiers of global terror, like Dawood Ibrahim, continue to live a life of ease under the protection of the terrorist state.
    In the meantime, India’s soft and weak leadership, steeped in the absurd myth of Punjabiyat and Kashmiriyat, prefer to exchange couplets of poetry and watch cricket with their Pakistani civilian figurehead counterparts rather than to take any decisive action on behalf of their unfortunate citizens.

  • BraddS says:

    Times of India suggests it is Pakistan warning the U.S. to think twice about pulling aid. Sounds like a stretch to me though…

  • blert says:

    The strike is timed for the confab, in Washington, between the head of the ISI and our CIA and DoD.
    General Ahmad Shuja Pasha wants to be able to read faces as the news unfolds.
    With any luck, he’ll be able to witness our discovery and decision tree, himself.
    He’s on a counter-intelligence mission, then.
    He’s also trying to gauge just how much time left Islamabad has before REAL pressure begins.

  • robertzm says:

    Unfortunately, unless India responds appropirately to yet another major terror attack, Pakistan’s ISI and the Jihadis will see Indian inactivity as a clear sign of weakness. Pakistan is obviously the bully and India is the pacificist victim. But at some point India needs to grow a set of balls, respond in kind and show that there are real consequences to bad behavior. Press conferences with strong condemnations will not make a dent in the problem.

  • Mirage says:

    good luck to the families of the people who got killed and to the people who got hurt, and may the Indian Mujahideen responsible be brought to justice

  • anonymous says:

    extremely soory was I to see today’s evening news.
    It tells about the sorry state of indian defence and police system.
    Really feel pity on the anti crime system of the largest democracy of the world.
    Its high time that we get out of our hibernation.
    Not only the police and the security people but even the common citizens are responsible for it.
    As a citizen of this country we should be alert and open to all what is happening around us.
    We are sitting on a mound of dynamite and its really a test of our patience.

  • gfgwgc says:

    Anyone who has spent any time in India will realize that it is impossible to prevent all such attacks short of making it into a police state A vast, diverse and chaotic country of 1.2 billion people does not lend itself to being a police state either.
    I also think that India is better off restraining its temper once more. After the November 2008 attacks, I was in full favor of retaliation but in retrospect am very glad that India chose restraint. An attack at that time would have unified the various nefarious forces within Pakistan. Instead, Pakistan is coming apart at the seams and its double game strategy remains exposed for all to see.
    India should focus on good defense, better intelligence and most of all its economy. These are the things that will make it stronger in the long run. Loss of a some lives as in such incidents is tragic but much less than would be pursuing any other course.

  • punam gadekar says:

    what are doing our security department after bombing our security team wake up from sleeping.
    how possible it terroirest came mumbai this is 2nd time

  • David Verbryke says:

    This shows the complete incompetence of the Reseach and Analysis Wing and the Intelligence Bureau, who are rather ineffectual at conducting sabotage, raids, and extrajudicial means of justice that the world rather not deal with. The United States has reformed itself better than any intelligence system in the world, even though our power has receded. That can be seen on the almost perfect raid on UBL’s complex in Abbottabad and other assassinations that are not even known about. The Israelis are now learning from our intelligence people, as are the Indians.

  • Don Vandervelde says:

    Do the Indians not know where the ISI personnel offices and official’s homes are? Do they not know where the nuclear stockpiles and laboratories are? This juvenile provocation deserves an immediate adult, brutal response. Then we’ll have ‘peace’ talks that have some significance.

  • S.Sridharan says:

    It is still not established who carried out yesterday’s blasts at Mumbai. However, if past incidents are any pointers, this one will also be traced back to Pakistan. For those who suggest that India remains restrained because Pakistan is anyway coming apart on its own, I say a resounding ‘NO’. India must hasten the process by all means. Many thought that Pakistan was not a viable country when it was materialized out of thin air in 1947. Even many Pakistani leaders, politicians and thinkers were not sure how Pakistan would survive as a separate entity. Yet, Pakistan chose to grab Jammu & Kashmir and in the process start a war with India and set up an enduring rivalry with her. Its unbridled antagonism has led to many crises, financial, economic, political and religious. Every time one felt that Pakistan could not descend any lower, it surprised us by plumbing new depths. Every time it was on the verge of bankruptcy, it was miraculously saved by its 3

  • Sanjit Bal says:

    Once again, India has been struck, don’t know which incident count is this, have lost track of how many have happened since 1980 when the Pakistan goverment started exploiting its LIC policy via the terrorists in Punjab.
    I know we have the capability to strike, covert & overt, the question is will we?
    While action may trigger a instability in the region, this is another opportune time for the world to declare a terrorist state a terrorist state. I mean how many indicators do you need, from 9/11, to every planner of 9/11 being found in Pakistan, to OBL, to the NYC bomber, to 26/11 attackers, confessions by James Headley Chase in Chicago in front of grand jury, to now….how many??? How many more innocents need to die before action is taken?

  • sanman says:

    Pakistan is just flexing its terror muscles at India, in the wake of the US aid cutoff. This is their way of sending a message to say that they’re down but not out. The Pakistanis also want to show that they can cause trouble for the US and its allies by hitting at the allies. The Pakistanis can then subtly hint to the US that unless aid is restored, Pakistan is free to pursue terror in various directions.

  • jean says:

    The Indian Government certainty has the right to retaliate. However, there are certain factions in Pakistan that would love to see confrontation between India and Pakistan. It would validate their notion of strategic depth and the need to meddle in Afghanistan. Also, a war or conflict with India would topple the current government and possibly lead to more extremist pro Islamic administration dominated and controlled by ISI. This was the intent of the 1st Mumbai attack.

  • pontiff alex says:

    Should India retaliate? Yes, but will it? No. With 1.2 BILLION people, these 21 poor sob’s are a speck of sand in a desert. They know that to escalate this to the level Pakistan DESERVES will only galvanize the psychopaths, and is that really “wise” when said psychopaths have nuclear weapons. I think they realize that they would have to completely obliterate the country to stop these flea bite-esque attacks. Ergo, it will be once again passed off as “the cost of doing business”……..

  • victor says:

    That Ralph Peters map ignores the fact that Northern Kashmir (PoK) is Indian territory, not Afghan, and is recognized by the UN as such. That area is India’s bridge to Central Asia and will be restored as the aberration called Pakistan dissolves.
    Also, it is very doubtful that Sindh, including Karachi, will ever agree to be part of a future Punjabi-controlled state. That will leave today’s “pakjabis” landlocked and dependent on their antagonistic neighbors for physical survival. Payback…

  • Shruti says:

    The world does not care about Indian Citizens because the Indian Government does not care about it’s own people. It has refused to take any action against Pakistan time and time again. The US will never lift a finger against Pakistan because the Indian Government has never taken any action against Pakistan.

  • jayant says:

    Will Indian govt retaliate? No. The Indian Govt is too pacifist / witless / ball less / Uncaring – take your pick – to hit back. The defence establishment might seeth but they do not make these decisions. The bottom line is the Indian Govt will only hit back when it feels the rage of Indian Public opinion will not spare it if it does not, it will be while for that to happen. So pakistan can jolly well keep playing this little nasty game for a while. To bad, but true.

  • barricas says:

    India should focus on good defense, better intelligence and most of all its economy. These are the things that will make it stronger in the long run. Loss of a some lives as in such incidents is tragic but much less than would be pursuing any other course.

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