In a move “designed to create panic”, at least seven small bombs exploded in Bangalore, earlier today (thanks Janeofalltrades and smallpress):
Bangalore Police Commissioner Shankar Bidri said the seven blasts went off within several minutes of each other at different spots across the city. One woman was killed in an explosion at a bus stop in the city’s Madiwala neighborhood, he said.
Another person died later of his injuries, federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil said.
Bidri said each of the small bombs contained the amount of explosives equal to “one or two grenades” and appeared to have been set off by timers. [AP]
No one has owned the terrorist act, which took aim at the city’s neighborhoods (vs. its companies), as of yet.
The police took pains to say that the city’s famed technology sector did not seem to be targeted, and that the blasts were designed to create panic. The blasts took place in crowded, middle-class neighborhoods. The city has grown rapidly in recent years from a boom in technology outsourcing.
By Indian standards, where several cities have been hit in recent years by large-scale terror attacks, the explosions on Friday were relatively minor. In the last major attack, serial blasts in Jaipur, an historic city and a main tourist hub in western Rajasthan, killed more than 60 people in May. The authorities have said in the past that terror attacks were designed to sow hostility and fear among Indian Muslims and Hindus.
Bangalore city police said it was too early to speculate on who was responsible for the explosions, or the reasons for conducting the attacks. [nyt]
Bangalore was last attacked three years ago, when a professor was murdered at the prestigious IISc:
The December 2005 IISc shooting occurred on Wednesday, December 28, 2005 at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in the Indian city of Bangalore, killing Prof. Munish Chandra Puri of IIT Delhi and injuring four, after two or more unidentified gunmen fired at Puri and others. The state government of Karnataka declared the shooting to be a terrorist attack, making it the first such attack in Bangalore. [viki]
My youngest first cousin, Sajan, called us at 3am to let us know that he was safe; his building had been evacuated and he was shuttled home. I hope you hear similar news from your relatives, as I keep the city, the two victims and the wounded in my thoughts and prayers.
Bombings seem to be becoming another sad fact of urban life like traffic accidents and potholes. The fact that it was a simultaneous detonation again shows some planning and sophistication was involved.
I think its pretty obvious what needs to be done.
HMF I think its pretty obvious what needs to be done.
Not to me, HMF, why don’t you explain!
No problem, we get finally go after the group of Swedish Gymnasts with crop haircuts and purple earrings, lurking in India, living among the nascent population for nearly a century that have committed these attacks over and over again, but still haven’t gotten the government to do anything about it.
Terrorists can strike at will, wherever and whenever they want. Sadly, in the end, they will win.
i’m sure more people died in traffic accidents today in bangalore
Way to keep things in perspective.
Nopes, they won’t. For three reasons. One, there are more people in India than terrorists, and will always be. Two, because support for terrorism is going down among the Muslim population. And three, the availability of arms is going down.
The last trend is particularly worth looking at. The bombings have steadily moved low-tech, going from RDX in the nineties to Neogel-90 in Hyderabad to Ammonium Nitrate and Urea now. Even in Kashmir, the recent attacks used grenades. Looks like the Pak-based outfits are starting to preserve the RDX for the sexier battles (Afghanistan, Iraq) and their local inter-Jihadi rivalries. Combine that with the lack of enthusiasm for Jihad among the Muslim youth in India (the SIMI chief captured in Indore confessed that it was getting harder to recruit people, and he himself was planning to quit SIMI), terrorism will soon peter out.
i’m sure more people died in traffic accidents today in bangalore
and your point is what?
That’s irrelevant; traffic accidents don’t inspire terror. Terrorism does.
ANNA: Nice to see you being regular again.
Sad news though.
you have not been to bangalore recently, I take it?
Damn – in Madiwala of all places. Too close to home…..
No, I have not, but I stand by my comment and the larger point I was trying to make. Minimizing these bombings is in poor taste, in my opinion.
We don’t get heart-stopping, 3am phone calls from Bangalore if there’s been a traffic accident.
It seems pretty obvious that there are LeT and related terror cells deployed in various cities around the country. The nuclear deal with the US is probably one of the terrorists’ reasons to sow some fear around in addition to all their other motives.
But isn’t that what the terrorists want. If we don’t let it terrorize us and put it in context (by comparing it to the number of traffic deaths, for example), isn’t that the best response to the terrorists?
To think that it’s people and not necessarily economy per se that was attacked is disgusting. In the end it’s all people but this is more evil in my eyes. Everyone in my family is alright. I had a bit of a panic about one of my friends who works for Goldman but he called eventually and said everything was OK but for now it was just chaotic and they were just managing security issues. I was happy to hear that.
UPS to your point you are trying to apply logic to something that isn’t logical. Accidents happen and they are part of life all of us are forced to accept. Terror related deaths aren’t logical don’t just happen and we should never get used to them.
The problem with comparing the number to an accident really does take away from the depth of the situation. Your logic implies that terrorism like accidents is inevitable.
Jane: What you get is a pliant population that can easily be manipulated like what happened in the U.S. that gives up civil liberties and is led into unnecessary wars.
You can feel bad for the victims and not be terrorized.
5 · Abdul said
Terrorism will bring no winners, just too many losses.
4 · HMF said
HMF, Swedish Gymnasts LOL. Well your satire is appropriate because had you said anti-social separatist inhuman muslim terrorists, you would be targeted by the pseudo-secular junta. Also you would be targeted by the muslims who would try to make you feel guilty with quotes like “just because a few muslims did it, you cant blame Islam” In the end we will have to get on with our lives hoping that the muslims will stop preaching and start acting. Vande-Mataram (Oops.. Vande-mataram is anti-islamic and is banned in muslim run schools in India)
Alas, it is true, in a country that is crammed with many hundreds of millions of people belonging to different ethnicities, castes, and religions, there will always be some group or other with a grievance, willing to spread terror as a vent to its frustration. Afterward, it is relatively easy to melt back into the faceless hordes. With the crushing population density of India’s cities, where people live packed cheek-by-jowl, it is ridiculously easy to commit almost “casual” atrocities affecting dozens, hundreds, and perhaps even thousands of people, without ever fearing reprisal. This is one of the great banes of India, and it will only worsen as the population continues to swell to 1.5 billion and perhaps beyond.
20 · Jeremiah said
Really?? Maybe next time we should look for the minority Parsi and Jain terrorists who make our lives miserable in India LOL Vande-Mataram (Oops.. Vande-mataram is anti-islamic and is banned in muslim run schools in India)
I think there are some terrorist enclaves bangladesh is allowing to fester that could use an airstrike or two. India loses face everytime it shows evidence of a neighbor’s hand in a terrorist attack and then does nothing about it. I dont think an invasion is called for, but there has to be some loss felt by the perpetrators for them to even contemplate giving up support for terrorist groups.
No problem, at least the numbers blocked, and will continue to block, the type of annihilation/marginalisation of the locals seen in Hawaaii, Canada, Australia, Africa, Latin America, and a Thanksgiving country. What’s a few bombs here and there, when the alternative would’ve been an Indian Reservation?
I hope the investigators go beyond the “ISI did it” refrain this time. Clearly this is something that would put smiles on their faces, but it doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been funded and planned within India. I think it’s alot like how AQ is short hand for any Sunni terrorist group among lazy journalists/analysts.
Terrorism and road accidents have a different effect on the populace no doubt. But if you look for a common element I think it is a lackadaisical attitude on the part of the government and low expectations among the populace.
21 · Topcat said
We can be as flippant as we want and make assumptions that have no basis.
South India has been a hotbed for Communism and Naxalism for decades, this movement while dying in the 90s is back with a big force in South India again. Thanks to the upswing in political power Maoists in Nepal, and economic upswing with the Reds in China, the Naxals are better funded now http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/02/stories/2008070255490300.htm
If you’ve forgotten there was Tamil – Kannadiga violence in Bangalore too, this could be a probable cause.
Instead of inflamming communal tensions against what is still a very moderate and liberal south Indian Muslim population, those among us who are educated should actually be responsible and wait for more evidence.
Another Friday, another act of violence. Togadia for Home Minister.
23 · Populist said
Reservation? The old bas%&$# (basket) Arjun Singh and VP.Singh have done enough of that to the point of driving brilliant students to suicide. That is the last thing India needs. “Hamae tum par Fucker hai Arjun Singh, bahut Fucker hai”
He means Feather not Dot Indian reservation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_reservation
I can see the Naxals doing something this sophisticated, but neither Karnataka or TN are within their comfort zones. If it were in Hyderabad it would seem more likely. The Cauvery issue has lead to Tamil-Kannadiga mob bloodshed, but I don’t see either party doing something organized like this against targets where anyone could have been killed
Sure, but Naxals have never bombed cities, or civilians. They mostly target the police and the army, only (Muslim/Sikh/Naga/ULFA) terrorists target pedestrians and shoppers, most of these folks are funded from across the border. Of these, only the Islamic radicals are present in south India. Circumstantial evidence is against them.
28 · RahulD said
“Hamae uss par bhi bahut Fucker hai… Naga, ULFA aur muslim bhaiyon par bhi Fucker hai….
“Sikh Terrorist” is an irrelevant term to this day and age, and should not be used without a thorough examination of our own nation’s government’s mistakes that led to the reaction. Please refrain from bringing that issue in.
But like you mentioned, Naga and ULFA, there is also the LTTE.
The Kannadiga violence was also due to the Veerapan kidnapping if I remember correctly.
There is a certain responsibility we have, as a Hindu, I’m assuming you are – the approach we should have to any issue is to pursue tangible evidence not circumstantial evidence and use a dispassionate way to get at it.
There are very few “Islamic Radicals” in India, even if they are, their reactions are very localized and are not a part of any global insurgency. Maybe they are associate with SIMI but that might be the worst of it.
Inflamming this issue without knowing the specific culprit and indulging in gross generalizations will turn the grenades eventually into IEDs. Please exercise restraint.
25 · RahulD said
Thank you, Rahul, for a sensible, appropriate and much-appreciated response.
.
Topcat, diverse, civilly communicated points of view are always welcome but your comments aren’t productive. Your point of view has been made abundantly clear– if you continue with this trend, you’ll be more troll, less commenter. We get it. We know who you blame and how you think people who disagree with you are pseudo-secular douchebags. Loud and clear. Please, move on.
if you continue with this trend, you’ll be more troll, less commenter.
strive for tromentator.
33 · A N N A said
I know you get my point but some people apparently havent…. otherwise we wouldnt see them equating islamic terrorism with say Tamil-Kannadiga issue. Islamic terrorism is a global problem(based on a primitive ideology) whereas the other is not. Thats it and I am out of here. Vande-mataram
I’m glad to hear that those of you who have family members there are okay, and I’m sorry for those who have lost someone 🙁
Minimizing someone’s loss or fears is never kind, but having a family member die in a routine way is no better than having them die in some kind of media spectacle. In some ways, I feel it’s been worse.
But that’s largely irrelevant to this discussion; people die all the time in myriad ways, and it is always sad and it is part of life. This “terrorism” highlights one kind of personal and community tragedy but not the “ordinary” kind that comes from heart disease, smoking, traffic accidents, domestic violence, floodings, poverty, wars, etc. For obvious reasons: because it doesn’t give the blink-of-an-eye media fodder for publication, because it doesn’t allow politicians to justify expanded power against people in general and targeted groups in particular, and because it doesn’t allow pseudo-Hindu, and pseudo-Christian and pseudo-human people to highjack our emotions to instigate Muslims or Sikhs or doctors and adivasis. So I quite frankly couldn’t give a damn how you feel, guilty or no, until you grow up.
23 · Populist said
I suppose that’s one way of seeing India’s glass as “half-full”. However, the implication is that India is condemned to dangle between the Scylla of racial marginalization/annihilation and the Charybdis of devastating, runaway population growth. Hardly an enviable position to be in.
I’m gonna make a personal comment on myself: It is just funny to me that I’m being branded a Muslim Apologist on one thread and a Zionist Neoncon Hindutva proponent on another.
Hmmmm? Not sure it is devastating, there is more devastation in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, where the numbers are less. I am not convinced that population growth is devastating always. On the other hand, it makes India interesting and vibrant. I will take that Charybdis over the boring Scylla of monoculture any day.
39 · Populist said
To be only slightly less devastated by population growth -and its attendant ills- than “a place like Sub-Saharan Africa” is still, by any objective measure, to be very devastated indeed. If one can only point to Sub-Saharan Africa and the like as places more severely afflicted than India, this rather goes to strengthen the impression that India is not in an enviable position at all.
It is just funny to me that I’m being branded a Muslim Apologist on one thread and a Zionist Neoncon Hindutva proponent on another
Thats just how it works, I’ve been branded a left-wing nut (on threads relating to white privilege and race relations) but a backwards conservative (on threads relating to gender relations) all the time. goes with the territory
I don’t know how accurate this article is, but it makes some interesting claims about India’s intelligence services (i.e., on why they haven’t been able to penetrate and preempt, or identify and smash post-attack, terror groups/cells in India):
“Yet, the counter-terrorism apparatus does not inspire confidence. The IB, in charge of domestic undercover operations, is woefully understaffed, with a staff strength of 20,000 for a billion-plus Indian population. Further, barely 10% of the IB is involved in actual tough and risky field operations, while the rest are involved in administration and management of the so-called force.”
Sounds like the FBI. 😉
Here’s the link (sorry I can’t hyperlink it properly–I’m on an Apple w/ Safari and don’t see the usual buttons to add a link): http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JE23Df01.html
41 · HMF said
no hmf, i just think you are a self-pitying nut who thinks that everybody is out to get the brown male in america. occam’s razor usually works.
as a dark complexioned generally rage-filled male, i guess you are enlightened enough to subject yourself to cavity searches as a matter of public safety.
Wow.
The civility of debate on this board has degraded noticeably in the past few years. And I thought I was an ass.
In any case… it does actually make a lot of sense not to jump to conclusions. We all are aware of the kinds of major conflicts that exist in India, but there are always surprises, twists, and turns that veer from the dominant narratives if one pays attention. The blind search for the global Communo-Islamo-fascist conspiracy can lead to a lot of stupid mistaken assumptions about these kinds of situations… and unfortunately these are the assumptions that drive policy and voting patterns. sigh
actually I take that back. I think it’s just me who’s changed.
That’s irrelevant; traffic accidents don’t inspire terror. Terrorism does.
its natural that people became concerned about their relatives in bangalore given the way the story hit the international news wires. i dont want to trivialize the concern you have for your family out here. i live in bangalore, and i haven’t gotten the impression that any significant number of people are terrorized. i will assert that a single traffic accident can cause more “terror” than all nine of these bombings. here’s the scenario: bus knocks down pedestrian, or motorcyclist lethally. crowd gathers and torches bus. cops come and do next to nothing other than propose to file a report. mob forms and starts thrashing people within and burning other buses. couple more people die. happens fairly frequently here, and inspires quite a bit of terror. a couple weeks ago a dead pig turned up adjacent to the compound of a masjid. it inspired some rowdy protestations in that neighborhood that spread to other areas. i drive through that area often, that day i reconsidered. more for the time delay it would have caused than anything else. but the fear of rioting is more more palpable than the fear of being a casualty to a bomb blast. i swear some of the firecrackers people use during diwali are pretty damn near bomb grade and intensity. Rajkumar’s death/kidnap saga, the cauvery dispute, and general kanadiga-tamil antagonism create more of an atmosphere of fear than anything else. riots are a time for people to settle old scores. in the chaos of it all you can get away with anything, sometimes even murder. these sub plots dont have to have anything to do with the political issue at hand. the BJP has already blamed the blast on a “soft” state. they couldnt be happier about this. this event is going to be referenced in security dialogue far into the future, and used as a bogey to avoid addressing basic issues like infrastructure dev. these people are going propose taking away our privacy and civil liberties over this fear of violence that they themselves will foster, yet they wont even pay lip service to the REAL and daily issue of violence against women in this society. they will insult the victims before they acknowledge the problem. i cant have respect for these exhortations for greater security from people who are not sensitive at all to genuine social injustice. lets condemn the attack, investigate it thoroughly, and after that thoughtfully consider its implications. lets keep in perspective the size and importance of the group responsible. i hope, however, we do not play the game of these fearmongering “hard” state proponents.
Well, how about 19th century Europe with its two wars and a cold war that almost wiped out the entire planet? That was not because of any population explosion. Devastation can also arise from lesser populations.
Here is something else to ponder: four of the world’s leading religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism) have their roots in India. The three others (Judaism, Islam, Christianity) have their roots in West Asia. You can think of North India and West Asia as the two focal points of world theology/culture/politics. Now compare how they have evolved. How is West Asia, with its low population, doing as a society, compared to India?
Sure, India is definitely not in an enviable position. Envy is probably not something worth aspiring for anyway, particularly in Indian culture. India, however, is in an interesting position. It has the most complex society in the world, with all the world’s religions, ideologies, and hundreds, if not thousands, of languages, cultures and ethnicities, all packed into a very geographically diverse land, with layers and layers of history, some good, some bad. With all that baggage, it still manages to hold together remarkably well.
You could well be right, the population growth may become devastating after a point, but India would handle that its own way as well. Much better than boring monoculture nations with little history would. So hold those lectures, or better, direct it some place less complex, say West Asia?
45 · yeti said
Ah, but the old Yeti had so much spunk:
“…you’re desperately confused. Either that, or you’re a total nihilist…”
no hmf, i just think you are a self-pitying nut who thinks that everybody is out to get the brown male in america. occam’s razor usually works.
then take it one step further, as someone who you continuously attempt to derail without any ability to address the points I bring up.
How long before comments are closed this time ?