6 explosions hit trains in Bombay, India

[Dr Strangelove]

Suicide attacks were also common in Vietnam.

[Colon™]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


The tamil tigers mainly, if not exclusively, attacked military targets. While I do not excuse attacks on military targets, depending on circumstances, what is shocking about the terror attacks is the murder of civilian victims, not the willingness of the perps to die. That seems to have caught many peoples interest, and it certainly makes them harder to stop, tactically, but its NOT the crux of what this is about.

Did I claim the Tamil Tigers usually target civilians?

And this was about smiley's statement that terrorism is a rural, undeveloped country phenomenon. Followed by Vesayen's assumption that suicide attacks are exclusively a muslim terrorist tactic.

[:) Smiley]

Originally posted by Spiffor



Most suicide bombers come from middle-class urban background, at least in Palestine.

Does the popular support for them also come from the middle class? Also, the rural/urban issue isn't simply a matter of living on a farm vs. living in the city, it's a lot to do with one's mindset in ways such as being fanatically territorial over a "homeland".

[Gatekeeper]

Q Cubed:

A primary focus of the media in the United States is LOCAL, LOCAL, LOCAL. The train impact — while a minor event from a global perspective — was big news in Chicagoland. That, need I remind you, is where the majority of the newspaper's subscribers and advertisers live and do business.

IOW, slighting India's tragedy was the last thing on the newspaper's mind. Furthermore, odds are the editors there saw the saturation airplay it was getting on television and decided to put it elsewhere in the paper.

I'm not necessarily defending what they did, just explaining the mindset behind it.

Gatekeeper

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by Tingkai
First off, my condolences to the people affected by this attack. I hope Aseem (sp?) is okay. Does he live in Mumbai.

As for who did the bombings, the attackers might be muslim, sikh, separatists from northeast Indian states, Kashmiri rebels, and so on. Best to wait and see before assigning blame.

First of all - I'm fine , so are all my friends . I have a friend in Mumbai ( Bombay ) who went there to get admission to colleges there . He is fine . All my friends' friends and relations are fine . I'm right now in Pune , which has not seen any terrorist attacks so far .

The bombers might be Al Qaida or Kashmiri terrorists ( who seem to have now tied up with Al Qaeda ) , or even Dawood Ibrahim's gang . Sikhs have never conducted attacks of this type since the Khalistani problem was solved ( and not even before ) , and I have never sensed any animosity from the sikh community of India towards anybody . Naxalites ( the north-eastern separatists ) do not conduce terrorist attacks of this type , because they know that public opinion will turn against them if they do so .


But the Indian state is soft , and the people are currently weak , so nothing much will be done . The problem is that flushing out the local supporters of terrorists necessarily involves investigating Muslim organisations such as Madarsas , which is politically unacceptable ( because then you lose the Muslim vote ) . This will , however , cause anti-Muslim feeling to rise , which is not a good thing .

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
The religion of peace

There's not much else you can say , can you ? What makes a religion so sick that it produces people like this ? Have they lost all humanity ?

[Sikander]

Originally posted by lightblue
I think the death rate was (relatively) low because all the bombs were in 1sr class carriages. They weren't targetting the real full carriages but the bankers/laywers etc in the front.

Is there a commie type group with the juice to execute this sort of operation in India?

[aneeshm]

The Indian government has , apparantly , discovered its balls .

The Indian government has decided not to let it go , this time . It has cracked down on SIMI ( Students' Islamic movement of India ) , a banned organisation which gives support to terrorists .

Link

Mumbai blasts: ATS detains 200 people

Press Trust of India / Mumbai July 13, 2006



At least 200 people, mostly activists of Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), have been detained from Mumbai and various parts of Maharashtra by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for questioning in connection with Tuesday's serial bomb blasts in the city, the police said today.

In an overnight drive by the city police, railway stations, lodges and hotels were searched and suspected activists of SIMI rounded up from their homes, sources said adding that the detained people would be interrogated to collect clues regarding the blasts.

ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi said several persons have been rounded up yesterday night, but no one has been arrested yet. "It is a routine procedure of investigation and the detained will be interrogated in connection with the blasts," Raghuvanshi added.

Sources in DGP's office said that similar searches were conducted at hotels and lodges and activists of the Islamic student body rounded up in various parts of Marathwada and Konkan regions - traditional SIMI strongholds.

Over 200 people died and 750 were injured in seven blasts that ripped off first class compartments of western railway suburban trains on Tuesday evening. Police suspect that the bombs were placed in leather bags and kept in luggage racks, and went off in a span of 20 minutes.

[Darius871]

Originally posted by aneeshm

There's not much else you can say , can you ? What makes a religion so sick that it produces people like this ? Have they lost all humanity ?

Molly Bloom in 3... 2... 1.....

[Arrian]

Originally posted by aneeshm


There's not much else you can say , can you ? What makes a religion so sick that it produces people like this ? Have they lost all humanity ?

Ah yes, THEY.

And no, they're religious nutbags but I'd say that's really quite human.

-Arrian

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Colon™


Did I claim the Tamil Tigers usually target civilians?

And this was about smiley's statement that terrorism is a rural, undeveloped country phenomenon. Followed by Vesayen's assumption that suicide attacks are exclusively a muslim terrorist tactic.

I would suggest that the use of suicide tactics in order to more effectively kill large numbers of civilians, is largely a tactic associated either with Islamists, or with pan arab nationalists who happen to be muslim (to include the whiskey drinkers in the al aqsa martrys brigades)

The LTTE is OFTEN brought up in support of the thesis that the problem, defined as suicide bombing per se, rather than the commitment of terrorist acts against civilians, is a generic problem associated with "occupation". IMHO thats misleading, if not in some cases dishonest, and I make it a point of contesting such inferences. Sorry if this has led us further off topic.

[LordShiva]

Aum Shinrikyo is a counterexample.

But your point is largely valid.

[Colon™]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


I would suggest that the use of suicide tactics in order to more effectively kill large numbers of civilians, is largely a tactic associated either with Islamists, or with pan arab nationalists who happen to be muslim (to include the whiskey drinkers in the al aqsa martrys brigades)

The LTTE is OFTEN brought up in support of the thesis that the problem, defined as suicide bombing per se, rather than the commitment of terrorist acts against civilians, is a generic problem associated with "occupation". IMHO thats misleading, if not in some cases dishonest, and I make it a point of contesting such inferences. Sorry if this has led us further off topic.

I'm sorry LOTM, but you might want to stop attributing opinions to me I did not state: I didn't say suicide bombing is a typical reaction to occupation, but I do dispute the automatic association of suicide bombing to muslim terrorists.

But since we're in the business of disputing axioms anyway: suicide bombing is not a tactic that kills more effectively, it however is a tactic that has a greater psychological impact.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by aneeshm
The Indian government has , apparantly , discovered its balls .

This is nothing new. Whenever any attacks happen, the Indian government rounds up several hundred of the "usual suspects," meaning any obvious Muslims who were stupid enough to be out in public the day after such an attack. Torture to extract confessions is not uncommon.

Anyway, the group claiming responsibility for the attack is al-Qaeda in Kashmir. This seems like the kind of thing al-Qaeda would do.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/07/12/kashmir/

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


This is nothing new. Whenever any attacks happen, the Indian government rounds up several hundred of the "usual suspects," meaning any obvious Muslims who were stupid enough to be out in public the day after such an attack. Torture to extract confessions is not uncommon.

Any proof for the accusations ? Or are you pulling this out of your posterior ? I suspect the latter .

But anyway . Politicians and police in India are extremely careful about arresting any Muslim , because they do not want to lost the Muslim vote . The police has not arrested Muslims , the Anti-Terrorism Squad has . And they don't want confessions , they want information about the terrorist network in India . SIMI is banned because it was actively connected to terrorist groups , and it was supporting these terrorist groups by giving them local support . That much is proven fact , as far as I know . Former SIMI members constituted the bulk of those arrested , most , I guess , from the executive positions in the organisation , the ones who will know the most about the terrorist network .