Mumbai under attack

Late Wednesday night, Mumbai, India found itself the target of a ferocious terrorist attack, and the situation remains unresolved even now, three days later. According to reports, upwards of 60 young men entered Mumbai in small inflatable boats on Wednesday night, carrying bags filled with weapons and ammunition, and spread out to nine locations to begin their attacks. Lobbing grenades and firing their weapons, they entered hotels, a railway station and several other buildings, killing scores and wounding even more. As of this moment, the identity of the attackers has yet to be definitively determined, though there are reports indicating some of the gunmen were Pakistani - at least nine of them have been killed, nine more arrested. As of this writing, there were a reported 151 people killed from 11 different countries - though nearly 100 were Indian. More than 300 injuries have also been reported - those numbers may yet rise as several hostage situations still exist in the city.

Onlookers stand at the site of a bomb blast in Mumbai November 26, 2008. (REUTERS/Stringer)

A gunman walks through the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Mumbai Mirror, Sebastian D'souza)


A man carries a victim of a gun attack away from the scene of an earlier attack at the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)


Armed gunmen are seen in the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008. Teams of gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, hospitals and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India's financial capital, killing people, taking Westerners hostage and leaving parts of the city under siege Thursday, police said.

A reporter talks on her phone as smoke is seen coming from Taj Hotel in Mumbai November 27, 2008. Large plumes of smoke were seen rising from the top of the landmark Taj Hotel in Mumbai on Thursday and heavy firing could be heard, a Reuters witness said. (REUTERS/Arko Datta)
A member of the anti-terrorist squad takes a position during an engagement with suspected militants at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, India, Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

Firefighters try to douse a fire at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai November 27, 2008. Indian commandos freed hostages from Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel on Thursday but battled on with gun-toting Islamist militants.


The body of a terrorist attack victim is brought in an ambulance to the St. Georges Hospital in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008. Dozens of people were still trapped or held captive Thursday.

Employees and guests of the Taj Mahal hotel, site of one of the shootouts with terrorists, are recued by firefighters as fire engulfs the top floor on late November 26, 2008.


Fire engulfs the top floor of the Taj Mahal hotel, site of one of the shootouts with terrorists in Mumbai on late November 26, 2008. (LORENZO TUGNOLI/AFP/Getty Images)


Sharda Janardhan Chitikar, left, is consoled by a relative as she grieves the death of her two children in a terrorist attack while she waits for their bodies outside St. Georges Hospital in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008.

The windows on the first floor of the Taj Mahal hotel shatter after the use of a grenade launcher in Mumbai, India, Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. Explosions and gunfire continued intermittently at the Taj Mahal hotel Friday afternoon, two days after a chain of militant attacks across India's financial center left people dead and the city in panic.



Schoolchildren hold candles during a vigil held in memory of the victims of Wednesday's shootings in Mumbai, in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad November 27, 2008. Elite Indian commandos fought room to room battles with Islamist militants inside two luxury hotels to save scores of people trapped or taken hostage, as the country's prime minister blamed neighbouring countries. (REUTERS/Amit Dave)

A National Security Guard (NSG) commando aims towards a window after an explosion on the fourth floor of the Nariman House where suspected militants are hiding, in Mumbai November 28, 2008. (REUTERS/Punit Paranjpe)


A National Security Guard commando fires at suspected militants believed to be hiding in Nariman House, in Mumbai November 28, 2008. (REUTERS/Peter Keep)

Terror attacks in India, 2007

TERROR ATTACKS IN INDIA, 2007


if the idea of a photograph, capturing a little boy brandishing a bunch of flowers to halt a convoy of armoured tankers bang in the middle of their tracks, splashed across the media all around the globe, can summarise the power of the media, it's the idea of terrorist attacks and bomb blasts destroying the lives of unsuspecting people that has in many ways come to define the concept of Breaking News; bright red alert sign, big bold lettering, urgent, shrieking voices, snugly in tag.

In 2007, terror came in the form of unexpected attacks in cinema halls, popular eateries and even at prayer hours. From mass killings of Hindi-speaking folk in Assam, to the Hyderabad spate of attacks and of course, the bombings on board what is soon becoming the easiest target across the country: The Indian Railways.

As we step into 2008, the fact remains that an idle walk in the park no longer remains as safe as we once assumed. With terror alerts sounded across the country, it is probably second nature to get on with life, taking many a lesson from the average terror-stricken Mumbaikars' lives. Are we only getting more vulnerable to such attacks?

Are we doing enough to make sure such 'elements' stay away from our everyday lives? Well, here's the icing on the cake: The Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in December 2007 admits that the government has a case of money being invested in the country's stock market from people suspected of having links with a terrorist organisation.






THE SAMJHAUTA BLASTS

Close to midnight, most of the passengers on the Delhi-Attari special train were fast asleep when the blast triggered a fire, leaving at least 68 people dead.
Survivors say the doors of the two bogies that erupted in flames near Panipat got jammed, and that passengers were hopelessly trapped inside. Travelling on the train in the dead of the night and deep in sleep, many mistook the sound of explosions as having been caused by a short circuit and ignored them. Others thought it was a robbery attempt.

All the unidentified bodies of the victims of the twin blasts on the India-Pakistan peace train were buried near Mehrana village, near Panipat. Muslim religious leaders, and relatives of the 'missing' passengers from both India and Pakistan were present during the mass burial. Some bodies were also taken back to Pakistan through the Wagah joint border check post.

TERROR STRIKES IN HYDERABAD

May 2007: Mecca Masjid blast.

August 2007: Twin blasts at Lumbini Park, Gokul Chat eatery. Two bombs ripped through Lumbini Park and a small restaurant, killing 43 people, many of them children and youth, three months after a bomb went off at the historic Mecca Mosque.
Police believe that both the Mecca Masjid blast and the August 25 twin blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat Bhandar are the handiwork of Bangladesh-based terrorist organization Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HuJi), and that its activist Mohammed Shahed alias Bilal, a native of Hyderabad, was its mastermind.
Bilal is believed to have triggered the blast from Bangladesh as a very sophisticated technology was used to detonate the improvised explosive device (IED), filled with a mixture of RDX and TNT. A phone call from anywhere in the world to a mobile attached to an IED is enough to trigger the blast.
THE AJMER DARGAH BLAST

October 2007: Terror struck the highly-revered sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer when a bomb went off inside the complex, killing at least two people and injuring 28 as thousands of Muslims were breaking their day-long Ramzan fast.

LUDHIANA CINEMA BLAST

October 2007: At least six people are killed injured as a powerful blast goes off inside the Shingaar cinema hall, crowded with a Sunday evening audience, in the industrial city of Punjab. The blast goes off slightly before 9pm when the evening show of Hindi movie Bhool Bhulaiya is in progress at the cinema hall located near the busy Samrala crossing area.

BLASTS IN GORAKHPUR, UTTAR PRADESH

May 2007: Uttar Pradesh gets on edge with communally sensitive towns across the state under high alert, as three low intensity blasts rip through Gorakhpur town. Alerts are sounded in Varanasi, Mathura and Ayodhya - all three towns are home to disputed religious structures - the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, the Krishnajanmabhoomi temple in Mathura and the
Babri mosque in Ayodhya.


VIOLENCE IN ASSAM THROUGH THE YEAR

In one of the most shocking incidents of the year, ULFA and Karbi Longri National Liberation Front extremists jointly raided Dehori village under Howraghat police station, called out the family members of Hindi-speaking folk, and gunned them down.
Soon after, hundreds of Bihar migrant workers fleed Assam to escape the bloodbath unleashed by militants in the northeast state. The ULFA militants went on to shoot dead more than 60 migrant workers from Bihar in a spate of attacks in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts.

After a spate of horrible bombings in cities, smaller towns and even villages despite a military offensive that officials claim is 'massive', no one could be sure of when or where the Assamese separatists would strike next. And in summary, a startling report claims that Assam has earned the infamous distinction of being the new leader in civilian casualties of terror strikes, surpassing Jammu and Kashmir in the latest figures.