Terror Tuesday, 7/11

Tuesday was dominated first by the serial attacks ontourists in Srinagar thatkilled eight and injured over 35 and then terror struck Mumbai at the peak ofthe rush hour as a series of seven powerful blasts rippedthrough first class compartments of suburban trains on the busy Western Linearound 6 pm, killing close to 200 people and seriously injuring close to 700.

The blasts occurred between 6 pm and 6.30 pm atMahim, Bandra, Matunga, Borivili, Mira Road, Jogeshwari and Khar, clearlytargeted at the office crowd returning home. The first blast was reported in a local trainfrom Churchgate to Borivali, and took place near Khar railway station, enroutefrom Mahim. The second blast was reported at Bandra station, the third atMatunga, the fourth at Jogeshwari, and two blasts were reported in Borivali.

At Matunga station, the blast was so powerful that itnot only ripped through the first class coach but also blew off a portion of theplatform shed. As the blasts ripped apart train compartments, mangled bodies ofpassengers fell on the tracks and survivors, many of them bleeding profusely,jostled to come out leading to chaotic scenes. Bodies lay scattered on thetracks, as the stunned fellow-passengers attended to the injured before rushingthem to nearby hospitals.

A large of injured people, including commuters of theblasts-hit trains were admitted to various government and private hospitals invarious parts of the city. Collating the figures confirmed by various hospitalauthorities in the city, the death toll at the moment of writing is beingestimated at close to 200, and counting. The authorities had estimatedthat as many as 131 bodies, many of them in badly mutilated condition, had beenbrought to various hospitals while many more succumbed to their injuries. BhabhaHospital at Bandra received 50 bodies, Lokmanya Tilak Hospital in Sion received38 bodies, the Bhagwati Hospital received 23 bodies, followed by 10 each by theKEM Hospital at Parel and V N Desai Hospital at Santacruz while the exact numberof bodies that had reached Cooper Hospital in western Mumbai was not known.

Police suspect that it is a pre-planned subversive plotsimilar to the explosions that had rocked Mumbai in 1993, and then in 2002 and2003. All suburban and long-distance trains on the Western railway lines weresuspended and police cordoned off the major road intersections, railway stationsand exit points.

As lakhs of commuters travel on these trains, theresulting overload of panic calls were enough to jam the telephone systems,leading to more anxiety and tension. And when it rains, it pours. Suddenheavy rains after an hour of the explosions made the job of rescuers all themore difficult. Confusion and chaos prevailed among train commuters at allWestern Railway stations as thousands could not make way to homes due tosuspension of train services on the western line. Passengers were asked to usecentral railway lines, that were functional, and BEST buses to reach theirdestinations. Fear and frenzy were the immediate response, as commutersscrambled to catch hold of any available means of transportation, some times byforce, at Churchgate station and other stations to get out of the commercialdistrict.

For a city barely recovering from the recent trauma ofthe mayhem caused by the rains last week, and the threats of violence beingunleashed by Shiv Sainiks only a day before, this stunning wave of panic causedby news of serial blasts inevitably raised memories of the blasts of the past,and anxiety reigned about the safety of the near and dear ones.

Meanwhile, in Delhi, the Prime Minister had convenedyet another special emergency meeting attended by homeminister Shivraj Patil, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and homesecretary V K Duggal after which Patil read out the PM's statement condemningthe "shocking and cowardly attempts to spread a feeling of fear andterror" and appealed for maintaining peace and calm, while BJP and ShivSena rushed out to blame the government for withdrawing POTA and otherwise beingsoft on terror.

While in the absence of any concrete information, the government authoritieshave not rushed to apportion any blame, intelligence sources point out that theattacks bear the typical signatures of Al Qaeda and are definitely inspired, ifnot engineered by its surrogates. The home secretary has so far ruled out anylink between the Srinagar and Mumbai attacks. While the nation remains onhigh-alert, and the resilient spirit of Mumbai comes to terms with the latestoutrageous attack on it, the time, as the Mumbai police commissioner pointedout, is to ensure that "nothing untoward takes place as a result of theblasts." For that would be falling right into the trap set by theterrorists.

It is clear that the beleaguered Prime Minister has his task cut out.He has to not only crush out the terrorists, but also ensure that he is seen tobe serious about doing so