Terrorism in India

I'm sure all of you heard about the bombings in Mumbai (Bombay) yesterday. If you haven't heard, you should stop reading my blog and start reading some real news. In any case, 7 rail cars were bombed yesterday on the West Mumbai suburban train system. At last count, the death toll is at 185 and over 700 people were injured. This is clearly a cowardly and despicable act of terrorism that was meant to yield maximum fear in hearts of Mumbakairs. Coordinating seven bombs, anonymously (of course), in a crowded (crowded is an understatement) train during rushhour with no warning... I'd say it's a credit to the people of Mumbai that the city is back to business as usual less than 24 hours later.

Also, for those of you who don't know the geography of Indian cities off the top of your head, Mumbai is about a 2 hour flight northwest of Bangalore. Mumbai has a history of such bombings, and they are usually caused by religious extremism between the Muslims and the Hindus. Some have suggested that it is Al Qaeda, others claim it to be organized crime. Most are pointing to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, an Islamic terrorist group.

It's really hard to imagine what this bombing meant unless you have seen the Mumbai train system. Imagine the Chicago El during rush hour. Then add another 30-50 people to each car, so that it is so packed people have to hang out the door by holding on to the side of the train. Now keep in mind that it's monsoon season, so it's been raining for the past 3 weeks straight. It took the police an upwards of 1.5 hours to reach the scene, and this is caused by a combination of the torrential rains and the millions of people who crowded the streets because they could not use the trains to commute home from work. This means that thousands of gawkers crowd the scene before any emergency personnel arrive. Quite the mess.

Call me crazy, but this could have been MUCH worse. In fact, it's nothing short of a miracle that it wasn't. Think about it: There are easily 100+ people in tight quarters on each train car and 7 cars contained bombs. To think that only 185 died... Still a tragedy, but hopefully this will prompt more stringent security precautions in the future before something more major occurs. Crazy world we live in.


On a brighter note, today is my one year anniversary living in India! Man, it definitely went by fast.

Expect to see me back in the US for good sometime between January and March of 2007. Peace, ya'll.