The fifth anniversary of the Mumbai train blasts that killed more than 180 commuters fell this week, on 11 July. Two days later on July 13, multiple blasts rocked Mumbai’s busiest areas.
As the news of the Mumbai blasts spread minutes after the detonations Wednesday evening, women in a train heading to the suburbs from South Mumbai looked at each other panic-stricken, desperately trying to reach their loved ones on the phone.
“I don’t want to die,” said a middle-aged lady who was heading home from work. “I’m scared. Is it safe to go from Dadar?” asked another. Each one looked to the other for assurance, and offered advice on the best way to travel. As more and more people tried to reach their loved ones on the phone, the overloaded networks jammed. Scores then turned to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook as a means of communication.
The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan said that 113 people had been hospitalised after suffering injuries in the blasts, which were caused by “powerful explosives … planted in a scooter and a motorcycle”.
The Home Minister P Chidambaram commented that there was “absolutely no intelligence inputs on the attacks, and it cannot be termed as intelligence failure.” He added that the investigating officials have been specifically advised not to have a pre-determined view on the attacks and since no group has claimed responsibility, “all terror outfits hostile to India are suspects in the case.”
On being asked if the blasts were intended to have an impact the markets, the Home Minister opined, “I don’t think the blasts were carried out keeping in view of the markets there. The place could have been chosen due to the density of the area. After personally visiting the sites of Dadar and Zaveri Bazaar, he stated that “some of the lanes in the area are so congested and choc-a block that even a low-intensity blast could have the maximum impact.”
Kurt Fernandez (name changed), a journalist feels that it’s not the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, who is responsible for it. “I think the underworld is back in Bombay.”
A Mumbai-based advertising professional feels that there’s a sense of resignation that the attacks are happening all too often. An executive producer based in Mumbai feels that she is clueless about who is responsible for the carnage. She added that others around her are getting angry and blaming the minority community and the Maoists for the blasts.
“While the police and the central intelligence agencies have named the Indian Mujahideen, it’s very unclear… but whoever it is, the motives are clear. Also, the attacks are happening with an alarming frequency. As a Mumbaikar, I feel helpless when I see that our capacity to stop the attacks is not good enough and it is an intelligence failure,” said Ashraf Engineer, a young professional.
In a city where life is cheap and seeking justice, a cumbersome never-ending process, the ordinary man has very little to fall back on. Caught in a very tiring rat race and being bombarded year after year by a vibrant, free and a jingoist media, it becomes impossible to separate fact from fiction. Authorities have no qualms pointing fingers at Islamic militants, but when it comes to probing right-wing Hindu extremists, investigations lazily stagger. Even the nationalistic media turns a blind eye.
Easily, falling prey to state-driven propaganda, overnight the common man becomes opinionated on matters of international relations, diplomacy and issues of global terror, thereby becoming the judge and the jury.
Strangely enough, overnight, the government’s spiel about “shining India” turns to India terrorised by external, uncontrollable forces. It must be impossible to control terror on one’s soil even if it’s sponsored by external forces. The press must devote its time to read about the number of attacks on citizens thwarted by the government’s secret agencies that consume a decent amount of tax.
On Wednesday, Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna condemned the serial blasts that rocked Mumbai evening calling it a ‘heinous’ attack. He also said that this was just another reminder that terror is a continuing threat to India.
“The great city of Mumbai was again rocked by terror attacks. This is another grim reminder to everyone in this country and in the region that terror is a continuing threat to India and its necessary for all Indians to be vigilant. I condemn this dastardly heinous attack,” Krishna said.
Meanwhile, the government has not ruled out the possibility of the involvement of a suicide bomber in Mumbai serial blasts, Home Secretary R K Singh said on Thursday, “The NSG DG has informed that a body with circuit has been found from one of the sites. The body was found near the explosion site. We are not ruling out anything,” he told reporters here. Singh was replying to a question about the possibility of the involvement of a suicide bomber in Wednesday’s blasts as the body was found with a circuit near one of the blast sites. “The investigation is still on,” he said.
It’s easy to scare a child into submission by leading him to believe that blood thirsty creatures lurk in the dark. Here, in this city full of people trying to make ends meet, the fear and hate of the unknown or ‘The Other’ surfaces in between every bullet and blast.
In a city where the race to get ahead is spirally out of control, and the difference between the haves and the have-nots frustrates people psychologically, tempers soar through the ceiling when those held guilty for the carnage are not brought to book. Politicians are abused, the judiciary is ridiculed and the crowds ask for the guilty to be hanged, while the rest respond with claps.
This morning, news articles began with visibly upsetting photographs of bloodied helpless victims, and with the happenings at the site of the most recent terror attack and ended with the long list of attacks that the city has endured over the years. “Why are they not hanging Azal Guru and Ajmal Kasab? Why is the government feeding these terrorists?” was the question on the lips of angry survivors from one of the blasts sites.
Dilnaz Boga is an Indian journalist and the recipient of Agence France-Presse Kate Webb Prize for her work in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Source: Dawn News
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