Breaking News in Bombay via AP:
Seven explosions rocked Bombay’s commuter rail network during Tuesday evening’s rush hour. The blasts ripped apart train compartments and reportedly killed dozens, police and Indian media said.
Though the chaos makes it difficult to ascertain exact numbers, how many have been injured, Indiant tv reports said that “the death toll could be in the dozens.”
40 80 100 105 137 163 172 200 people have died and 300 464 700 are injured. I’m sure that before I can even update this post, one of you will comment with the latest numbers; I sincerely hope that they are not high. I know, I’m excessively idealistic, but whenever I hear “Breaking News”, “Bombs” or “Trains” or similar, I screw my eyes shut and pray for miracles.
Television images showed injured victims sprawled on train tracks, frantically dialing their cell phones. Some of the injured were being carried away from the crash site. The force of the blasts ripped doors and windows off carriages, and luggage and debris were strewn about.
Pranay Prabhakar, the spokesman for the Western Railway, confirmed that seven blasts had taken place. He said all trains had been suspended, and he appealed to the public to stay away from the city’s train stations.
Bombay, India’s financial center, and New Delhi, the capital, were reportedly on high alert. Bombay’s commuter rail network is among the most crowded in the world.
Developing… 🙁
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UPDATE # 1
Though CNN is reporting that no group has claimed responsibility, the NYT has updated the article I originally cited with the following:
The blasts appeared to have come in quick succession — a common tactic employed by Kashmiri militants that have repeatedly targeted India’s cities.
The first explosion hit the train at a railway station in the northwestern suburb of Khar, said a police officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
India’s CNN-IBN television news, which had a reporter traveling on the train, said the blast took place in a first-class car as the train was moving, ripping through the compartment and killing more than a dozen people.
…All of India’s major cities were reportedly on high alert following the attacks, which came hours after a series of grenade attacks by Islamic extremists killed eight people in the main city of India’s part of Kashmir.
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UPDATE # 2
MANISH IS OKAY.
The image you see above is from Ultrabrown; his post on this horrific terrorist attack is here.
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UPDATE # 3
CNBC’s reporter phones in to update the death toll: 100.
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UPDATE # 4
The Mumbai Help blog has resources, updates and a very important reminder that blood donors are needed desperately.
If you’re not shaken to your very core by this tragedy yet, perhaps this simple quote from that site will affect you as much as it has unexpectedly moved me (every other person on my team at work is a PWCer):
I’m so sorry
harshad borgaonkar from price waterhouscooper. His i-card was found amongst the debries [link]
My prayers are with all who were lost, those who are injured, those who are fighting to literally pick up the pieces and help, those who cannot reach family and friends and everyone else who is affected by this craven, calculated attack.
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UPDATE # 5
Bloomberg.com provides new and updated totals:
India’s commercial hub, was rocked by seven explosions on trains and in commuter stations yesterday, killing at least 163 people and injuring 464 in the nation’s worst terrorist attack in 13 years. [link]
There is now a wiki for the event and instead of lashing out scornfully against India’s neighbor, please note that it was created by a Pakistani-American in California named Sabahat Ashraf (via ASATA’s mailing list). SAJA says he “helped lead similar resource (sic) during 2005 Kashmir earthquake”.
SAJA’s contribution to blast-related resources–which includes a link to SM Alum Manish Vij’s Ultrabrown— is here.
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UPDATE # 6
Via Reuters, the grim reality of the wounded city, where predictably, they are running low on hospital beds as well as blood:
“Most of the patients have received burn injuries and are suffering from severe trauma,” M.E Yeolekar, head of Sion Hospital, told Reuters.
“In my entire career as a physician, this is the second destruction I have seen of this magnitude,” he said, referring to bomb blasts in the western city in 1993 which killed 250 and wounded around 1,000 people.
On whom we are praying for:
Hundreds of relatives frantically pored over a list of dead and injured outside the hospital, a scene repeated at many other hospitals, packed with people searching for friends and relatives.
Some of the people who entered a makeshift morgue were unable to identify badly mutilated bodies.
Considering some of the uglier talk on this thread and elsewhere, it’s important to remember that Muslims died, too:
“I spoke to him 10 minutes before he died,” said Haji Mastan, sobbing uncontrollably over the death of his cousin Mukti Mahmood Darvesh, who was travelling on one of the suburban trains.
“Why did it have to end like this? He was young and he has children.”
It’s always darkest before the dawn:
In another hospital, staff constantly mopped up blood from the floor as patients were being wheeled in by the minute.
“We collected scattered limbs with our own hands and put them in bundles and sent them to hospital,” said Santosh Patil, a railway labourer, as he stretchered in a mangled body.
First person account of an attack designed for maximum carnage:
“It was a deafening sound and before anybody could realise anything the roof of the train was ripped apart,” said Mukund Thakur, who was travelling to the northern suburb of Andheri.
“People were thrown outside. I saw limbs strewn around me.”
During our lowest moments, all we have is each other:
Local people distributed food and water among hundreds of people who waited for news from their near and dear ones.
“We are trying to persuade them to have something,” Gurpreet Singh Bangar told Reuters.
“In this moment of distress and tragedy, people don’t care for food,” he said. “But everybody has to live.”
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UPDATE # 7
More from the Beeb. Some commuters never had a chance:
An eyewitness at Mahim told the BBC some of those who had jumped from the train were run over by another train coming in the opposite direction.
Others were lost in the stampede which was inevitable, considering all the panic.
What price, for a life? Nothing can truly compensate for such a staggering loss, but…
The Indian railway minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, has announced financial help for the victims and their relatives. He said relatives of those killed will get 500,000 rupees ($11,000) each.
He has promised jobs for the victims’ relatives and said the railways would also bear treatment costs for the injured.
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UPDATE # 8
I know, it’s ten hours old, but this quote from the web chat WaPo hosted with Suketu Mehta, the author of Maximum City, almost makes me smile:
Washington, D.C.: As a former Bombay resident, I was pleasantly pleased at the way the city reacted to the bomb blast last time around. I hope the same sense will prevail this time as well — nothing defeats the terrorists more than gettting back to normal within hours of such an incident.
Every resident of the city — former or current — walks wounded today.
Suketu Mehta: Bombay is not going to be beaten down by these blasts. In 1993, the blasts killed 257 people; one of the buildings bombed was the Stock Exchange. The plotters were hoping to cripple the financial nerve center of the city. When the Stock Exchange reopened two days later, using the old manual trading system because the computers had been destroyed, it actually gained ten percent in the next two days. Just to show them.
Show ’em again.
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UPDATE # 9
Mutineer Neha reminds me to check and then change the “tolls”. At this point, 900 people are either dead or injured (200/700). Have mercy.
The number of dead in the eight near-simultaneous bombings during Tuesday evening’s rush hour in India’s financial hub has risen steadily as rescue efforts uncovered more bodies and people have succumbed to their injuries.[link]
Meanwhile, the city kept on keepin’ on and Suketu Mehta (see Update # 8) was right. As one tipster wrote about the Sensex in our News tab, “Can’t touch this”:
Following the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai yesterday, the Sensex opened marginally (nine points) lower at 10,605…Early nervousness saw the index slip to a low of 10,550. However, buying emerged at these levels and the index rebounded into the positive zone.
Unabated buying in technology and select index heavyweights saw the index surge to higher levels in the latter half of the day. The index touched a high of 10,939 – up 389 points from the day’s low. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 3% (316 points) at 10,930.[link]
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UPDATE # 10
More, from the Guardian/AP. While people once again board trains and the city limps back to its routine, hell isn’t over for far too many Mumbaikars:
Authorities say they do not know how many missing people there are. But Indian television stations are broadcasting pictures of dozens of missing in the hopes of helping relatives locate them.
You know how everyone knows or is related to someone in NYC? Same with Bombay:
“I’ve been searching for hours. I don’t know where else to go,” he sighed.
His colleague’s family lives in the southern city of Bangalore. “His wife called me up and said she hadn’t heard from him and we’ve been searching ever since.”
Because so many hospitals are treating victims, the search is difficult, Ahir says. Making matters worse, many with lesser wounds have been sent to the city’s many small clinics because the hospitals are overflowing.
“What do I tell her when she calls again?” he asked.
I hadn’t even thought of this heartbreaking reality:
There are also victims without families.
At a suburban hospital, a small boy lies unconscious, an oxygen mask strapped to his face. No one knows who he is.
“We searched him for identification, any photographs, but there is nothing,” said volunteer Shilpa Basin. “What if he was traveling with someone and they are injured as well?”
How many children are orphans now? If he wakes up, will this little boy even know where he’s from, what his parents’ names are, who he is? Heartbreaking.
This reminds me of Lower Manhattan, after September 11:
Gandhi, a college student, said her family had spread out to various city hospitals. “We’re taking his picture and showing it to anyone – to injured people, even to relatives of victims. Maybe someone will remember seeing him and we will find him,” she said.
Another horrifying problem: how do you identify someone after something like this…
Gautam Chavan, is fearing the worst.
“I saw how the coach had exploded, if that is the state of a rail coach, what chance do people inside have?”
Scenes of badly wounded people being brought to the hospitals upset him.
“What if we can’t recognize him? What if he’s not recognizable? When will we know?” he cried.
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UPDATE # 11
Via The Hindu: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri makes tactless remarks, which rightfully get condemned by India (and me).
External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Navtej Sarna said “no cause” could justify killing of innocent people…we find it appalling that Foreign Minister Kasuri should seek to link the blatant and inhuman act of terrorism against innocent men, women and children to so called lack of resolution of disputes between India and Pakistan”.
What did the Foreign Minister say exactly? Oh, just this:
Kasuri has said the “best way” of dealing with extremism in South Asia is to tackle “real issue” of Jammu and Kashmir.
Right, because that justifies the slaughter of innocents.
Noting that not much progress has been made on Kashmir problem, (Kasuri) said “incremental approach is good but now we must tackle real issues. And this is the best way of tackling extremism in South Asia”.
Of course it is. Kill first, talk later.
funny. I was just thinking about this. Sorry to say this, but were I in india, I would be very skeptical of going to a public blood camp. One time I had to get a blood test in india for some government paperwork and was sent to the official center run out of a public hospital. There was a guy who picked out one of six needles sitting in a brown bottle with some fluid, jabbed my finger and replaced the needle. Here’s what’s rich.. the report came back with a B+ and I’m A+. We have a family friend who contracted hepatitis in a private “nursing home” through a blood transfusion. Though we privately believe that’s the official story told by the family to keep from people learning he died of AIDS.
God… this is so frustrating.
We have to get used to it.. This is not the first time in recent years..We have had repeated attacks all over India and there is no sign that it is going to end. The best thing to do is to be prepared for it. (like if you goto some place, think about what are the alternatives for transport, communication etc..)
You can buy your own disposable needles (at least for blood tests). Isn’t that possible for a blood donation as well?
172 🙁
Via Wiki, Counterterrorismblog.org has interesting pieces. Please note that it is “dot org” and not “dot com”…I first put in .com (the Wiki article simply mentioned counterterrorismblog) and pulled up some commerci-ally-plenny-of-Ann-Coulter-links site!
These things are happening way too often and easy. Please guys don’t give your GANDHIAN BULLSHIT. Many of us don’t subscribe to it inspite of being Indian YES. I wish there was a easy way to wipe out these elements of the society with same measure if not more. Life is way too precious to be destroyed like this.
Oops. Sorry. Just noticed MD has already posted this. The only thing my post added was cautioning the “org” and not “com” bit :).
Duuuuude, considering this:
your comment was MASSIVELY important. 😉
I have donated blood a number of times in Bombay. They do have new disposable needles for every person. You should make it a point to see them unwrap the needle in front of you.
thanks brown_fob for correcting me. my (mis)information was over a decade old. as the local blood bank advertises – “blood! it’s in you to give”.
A friend of mine in Bomaby told me that common people were out in the streets assisting stranded commuters returning home from work. They were providing them with drinking water, home cooked snacks/meals, towels etc. The autoriksha-wallahas and the taxi-wallahs were not charging their customers…and provoding them free rides to nearby bus-stops.
brown_fob,
see update six above, but more important than that, please keep us updated with what you hear. 🙂
Just got home and read this. Terrible news 🙁
Thanks for the Mumbai Help line info. Time to put the phone on redial.
My fiend reahced home at 1:30 in the night. He was overwhelmed to expeirence the sea of humanity first hand tonight. He has made a silent oath (and will also encourage his friends )- to go to office tomorrow – to show the terrorists that ….” they do not matter” . And yes, he firmly belongs to the group of people who want the terrorists to be brought to justice and expects a decent closure(whatever it takes).
My heartfelt condolences to all Mumbaikers. It seems appropriate to point out that NO CITY in India is as capable of bouncing back from a tragedy as Mumbai, whether natural or man-made.
When the dust settles down, like before, the guilty will likely be some Muslim organization with some aid from ‘Foreign Elements.’ But the true test of Mumbai will be how it reacts afterward. Who knows how many victims of the bombing were muslims as well. And tell me if I’m wrong, but aren’t many of the shanty towns from which quickest aid arrived made of Muslim populations also. I saw a photo of an obviously Muslim guy helping the victims at the Mahim bombing site. Any retaliation by the general population will affect that guy more than LeT or JeM or whatever the terrorists call themselves these days. We’ll be feeding the cycle of terror much like America is doing right now.
Be strong and keep your head for all of India! That goes double for those posting your hate on this site. Anyone can work up a rage but let’s save it for another day for the deserving parties!
Sorry if I sound offensive, these kinda statements look childish. Why do we need to repeat the ‘media jargons’?.. Do you folks know of any other city in which the residents fled after a terrorist attack and did not carry out their routine work the next day.. It has become a sad ‘cliche’
Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer and then publish a stupid article!
I guess various pissed-off communities in Mumbai are always ready with a well-coordinated bombing plan, just in case there is a reason to use it.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1041087
dna-india reports: On Tuesday, the cabbies of Mumbai rose to the occasion after seven serial blasts rocked the city. They pooled in the victims, kept their cool and braved the traffic and rain and made their way to the nearest hospitals. “Innocent people are killed. It’s unfair. Nobody will gain by this bloodshed,” said an emotionally charged Santosh Jadhav who spent his day’s earnings of Rs200 to buy water and snacks for the relatives of the injured and the dead.
Sorry if I sound offensive, these kinda statements look childish.
Now, Ponniyan, give someone (Mumbai) a break. Don’t you out balm/ say soothing words to a city/ people that is badly hurt? Is that not cliche too? Have we become so jaded?
You cannot deny Mumbai is the financial/ film making/ wheeling and dealing capital of India and an incredibly vibrant city and metropolitan to the core. In 80s (` 20years ago), I spent just a week or so in Mumbai – but those busy trains criss-crossing, Gateway of India, beautiful Parsee young girls, and the huslte and bustle are still fresh in my mind.
Why do people have to hurt other people? Why why why do they insist?
I was talking of the mental grit of the people of Mumbai and also their self-reliance. I don’t see them comemorating the Bombay Blasts with public rememberances and memorials like the people of some western cities…Or dwindling away to helplessness like the people of New Orleans. I don’t know if they are going to be receiving big checks in the mail for their injuries or for soaked basements. I could be wrong.
My dear, you should have stopped after your first, flawless sentence.
“If you are late for work in Mumbai and reach the station just as the train is leaving the platform, don’t despair. You can run up to the packed compartments and find many hands unfolding like petals to pull you on board. And while you will probably have to hang on to the door frame with your fingertips, you are still grateful for the empathy of your fellow passengers, already packed tighter than cattle, their shirts drenched with sweat in the badly ventilated compartment. They know that your boss might yell at you or cut your pay if you miss this train. And at the moment of contact, they do not know if the hand reaching for theirs belongs to a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or a Brahmin or an Untouchable. Come on board, they say. We’ll adjust.” -Suketu Mehta, Maximum City
tamasha, that makes me want to weep.
My freaking cousin was to be on one of the trains, but we just learned that he left work early last night and is home now, safe. Took us 5 hours to find out, but at least we know.
Peace to all who have been affected here.
Assuming what most people are thinking about who did this is the case, i’ll say this:
I f**king HATE religion and all the extremism it spawns – too easily manipulated for power, money and/or political purposes. Extremist islamists are largely the current culprits in this day and age, but they pretty much all have blood on their hands.
Spirituality and kind acts, not religion and “tribal” hatred, please. I think that’s all these cats from Jesus to Prince Siddartha really wanted.
How horrible. May Allah grant the people of Mumbai strength and patience to endure this tragedy and may He destroy those responsible.
It could get worse–let’s hope rightwing Hindus don’t go on a rampage against Muslims in retaliation.
terrible terrible terrible. i was born in borivali (north mumbai) and my folks returned to live there a few years back… one of the blasts happened there and the hospital near my folks house is innundated with casualties. many of my relatives take those trains (especially the first class compartments), and all are o.k., but with the cell phone network shut down by the authorities, there were a few hairy hours for everyone. my mom was pretty shaken up because it took forever to track down her brother. condolences to anyone who suffered in this in any way. yet again mumbai unites. yet again some deranged individuals attempt to sow discord between the people of the city will fail. i just hope the rest of the country can follow mumbai’s example and keep the peace. whoever did this should not be dignified with the title of whatever religion they follow, in fact, they shouldn’t even be dignified as human.
“A Muslim”:
Sorry bro/sis – there is no Allah, Yahweh, or whatever you wish to call “him”, and, if there is, “he” is certainly not an interventionist. There is human nature and it’s a byeeotch.
But, whatever gets you through the day is cool-io is guess. Peace to you.
To quote my man Nick Cave:
“I don’t believe in an interventionist God But I know, darling, that you do But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him Not to intervene when it came to you Not to touch a hair on your head To leave you as you are And if He felt He had to direct you Then direct you into my arms”
To quote my man MK Gandhi:
“I am a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, and a Jew”
Apu_is_innocent,
Jinnah: “Only a Hindu could say that” : )
If he said:
We’re all victims – Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Jews. That would be appropriate too!
This ain’t my blog, but please keep offensive comments like this somewhere else. “A Muslim” wasn’t telling you what to believe; don’t tell him/her what to believe. Our cultures carry a marvelous capacity to incorporate people of all faiths – Hindu, Muslim, indigenous religions, Christian, Zoroastrian, and atheist as well.
You sound young, arrogant, and ignorant. In painful times, some people do need faith.
Ranjit,
What is so offensive in Apu’s comment ? Do you have an offensive meter to measure?
And this is what he also said:
Shanti, shanti, shanti…
Communis Rixatrix:
You’re right I should have shut up after the first one…I sound like one of Abhi’s jingoists, and THAT I’m in mortal fear of these days. : )
Like I said “Ranjit” – whatever gets you through the day, same thing you said about some people needing faith. Why judge me? I am neither young, arrogant nor ignorant, just pragmatic.
I was not trying to offend, but to say that we need to look deeper to solve these complex problems instead of just hoping to pray them away.
I’ve got nothing but love for every person.
thank you rkay123 – as i just posted…
I’m sure the U.S. is to blame for this somehow.
SHANTI, SHANTI, SHANTI
Thank you for saying it Abhi. It’s as if for the “glamour effect” that media tends to make it that way. I sincerely also wish for all catastrophies to be known by their own identity and not some date on a calendar. It takes away from the importance each one holds in history and for those that were affected by it and it makes everything seem so nebulous and it is not.
Saying, “sorry pal, but that God you’re looking to for strength? He’s bullshit,” is offensive as hell. Is this not obvious? Effectively adding “whatever floats your boat” at the end is no less insulting. You were being ridiculously condescending and judgmental, and then you masked it with some weak lines from NICK CAVE and the ever-quotable Gandhi. You’re quite the westernized oriental gentleman(or -woman) – scoffing at the savages and their petty gods.
Pure arrogance and presumptuousness. No one made any attempt to “pray them away”. No one suggested that prayer would solve any problems. You assumed that just because someone mentioned their religious faith, they were some ignorant yokel rolling their eyes to heaven. Sand****a please.
What Roger Ebert had to say about this, written in his review on the movie “Elephant” (which parallels events at Columbine in some ways, though it doesn’t glamorize it)
I finally got to read through all the posts here and my heart goes out to those who have suffered through this horrendous attack. Whoever is doing this doesn’t care what faith is attacked or killed. That person doesn’t value life at all. Only that is certain. As someone pointed out, I hope and pray that this doesn’t start a domino reaction with the Hindus rioting etc. That will be an equally sad outcome.
The military would tag today as 11 July 2006. Just got that confirmed with someone in the service.
Damn Ranjit – relax brother, you are really taking this personally it seems. What has got your goat? Like calling people “Sandn**ga” is moving the debate forward?
I am not assuming anyone is an “ignorant “yokel” here. Perhaps you are assuming that for me. I am just trying to say to those of faith that there are deeper issues to consider and solve.
This being said, I will scoff a bit at those (of any color or religion) and their petty gods. Where has it gotten us throughout history?
I lost 3 friends on 9/11 (my office window at WFC was blown out by the blast), and almost lost a cousin yesterday (who was lucky enough to leave work early and miss the fateful train). I am just trying to find my own answer to this madness.
Blast photos on Flickr (warning: some of them are quite graphic) http://flickr.com/photos/tags/mumbai
We all are. We are all shaken by this tragedy (especially those of us with family or friends in the city or even those of us who live in cities that are or were targets). Please, can we be nice to one another, since we have THAT in common? There will be plenty of other threads for scoffing at religion and barely-veiled epithets, so let’s not do that here.
[accidentally deleted comment restored]
DAKS, the day Mahatma Gandhi’s words are considered, as you so eloquently put it, BULLSHIT – will be the day that everyone has forgotten the past that allowed them to be safely tucked away in their current havens. Assuming you are of Indian ancestry – please for the love of everything that is good in this world never call that man’s work bullshit.
Fair enough Anna, and i hope i was being nice as possible – it was my intention all along. Thank you for your good words. But, this being said, good heated debate often produces the best results, so let’s not be too PC here.
Peace to all…
Seed some future threads for scoffing at religious manipulation, etc. then – ai-ight?? It is worthy of discussion.
PS – why did the guy have to belittle Nick Cave AND Gandhi?? ;-))))
You were being nice. 🙂 I just wanted to do what I always stupidly did in college, get between two (usually massive Punjabi) people and try to stop a fight. 😉
As an ex-debate nerd, I totally agree. The only times I prefer that we get a little stricter are tragedies like this, entries which deal with someone’s murder or death, someone’s Good-bye post, etc. There’s no need to hurt other people, right? And when someone starts lobbing the “sand”-bomb, no good can come of whatever’s next. Save the battling for issues, not spaces where people are reading with tears in their eyes, IMO.
I don’t know, darling. I’m kinda sweet on Nick Cave, too.
Thanks A N N A, solid point – oh, by the way, bad memories of desi parties during those ivy league college years – those crazy rutgers/queens college Punju homeboys, always trying to start a fight! 🙂
I finally saw your blog and LOVE your musical tastes – saw the new pornographers in your town of DC in the fall (9:30 Club is the shizzle). Plus, you are one hot mammi! :-))))
I’ve got tickets to see the Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth, with Wolf Mother opening. I KNOW you would be down with that show!
AiI: 😉
Ping me offline, if you want. I’ll tell you all about my unnecessary angst over siding with The Pixies over Sonic Youth, whom I also adooooore. I don’t want to threadjack my own post. 🙂