First Bangalore, now Ahmedabad

July 26, 2008 11:20 AM

Two cities in two days. Multiple injuries and several fatalities. The BJP has of course come out strong against the [ruling] Congress party for not trying to do enough to stop the menace of "terrorism" in the country, after having lost its fight to overthrow the government. Now, it is up to the Prime Minister to pick up the pieces and move on.

However, the Congress has denied the charge of being soft on Terrorism, and believes that this is a ploy to bring down the government. The Police on the other hand are continuing with their investigation, and believes the members of the So Called Extremist Islamic Organization "SIMI" might have had something to do with this.

Meanwhile Delhi, the capital, remains on high alert, while cities like Hyderabad, which had been the target of such attacks in the past are also on the radar.

An eye witness account of the incident in Ahmedabad (with pictures) and the US's response as usual.

posted by hadjiboy (11 comments total)

The terror link originating from Hyderabad and leading to Bangalore and the massive crackdown on the cadres of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) has led to Friday’s ‘‘retaliation’’ in the form of serial bomb blasts in Bangalore, Intelligence agencies have concluded.

Wasn't this the same sort of thing that was going on all the time between the Hindu and Muslim communities before Pakistan was hived off?
posted by three blind mice at 11:38 AM on July 26, 2008

Thanks for posting all these links, hadjiboy.
posted by homunculus at 11:58 AM on July 26, 2008

This post might be about India. Not sure.
posted by neuron at 6:46 PM on July 26, 2008

Deadly explosions hit Istanbul
posted by homunculus at 2:12 PM on July 27, 2008

I'm just saying...

Comments regarding bomb blasts in India: 4 (not counting mine)
Comments regarding Oliver Stone's movie, "W": 69
posted by Upal at 10:23 PM on July 27, 2008

70
posted by Upal at 10:24 PM on July 27, 2008

California Man's Computer Used to Send Bomb Threat in India
posted by homunculus at 5:37 PM on July 28, 2008

Ajay Sahni from SATP has this take:

Our political leaders strut about imagining India as a ‘world power’, but the reality is that we have a crumbling political and administrative system that looks good only [...] in our neighbourhood. [...] How does a country, which does not have the administrative and technical competence to construct a half-way decent road transport system in its capital city, evolve the capabilities to confront and neutralize one of the most insidious ideologies and complex movements of political violence in global history?

(The irony here is that, for its expressways, the ring-road system and wide Lutyens'-Delhi streets, I actually happen to think that Delhi's road-transport system is better than those in Bangalore, Bombay or Hyderabad.)
posted by the cydonian at 9:18 PM on July 28, 2008

My initial reaction was similar to three blind mice's: why does this seem to have suddenly become a problem, while it was dormant or at least not as violent for so long? What changed?

Fighting Islamic terrorism directly doesn't seem to be a winning strategy — the U.S. tried that route, and it's in the process of bankrupting us. Capitulation or appeasement don't seem to be very attractive options, given that they might just encourage other fringe ideologies to do the same thing in the future. The only other avenue I can think of is an attack on the ideology driving the attacks itself.

Perhaps India's government will be able to understand the extremist ideology and respond more effectively and with a more nuanced approach than the U.S. has managed so far.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:00 AM on July 29, 2008

"An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind". Bitterness threatens Indian tolerance. Indian Mujahideen, the group that says it bombed Ahmedabad, taps into a deep sense of grievance among India's Muslims.
posted by adamvasco at 1:54 AM on July 29, 2008

why does this seem to have suddenly become a problem, while it was dormant or at least not as violent for so long? What changed?

Can't speak for pre-Independence India, but post-independence, most Hindu-Muslim trouble was in terms of riots; it's only since 1993 that it has turned into series of sequential blasts such as these. Of course, must be pointed out that many Muslim institutions were targetted - the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad (we had a thread about that here in the blue) was one prime example - so it's rather difficult to look at it through the prism of sectarian bloodshed.

My take: this is a certain Long-Tail-ization, if you will, of terror; because information is widely available and materials easy to source (surprisingly enough, both the Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Bangladesh borders are more porous than most people presume), it apparently has become easy for disconnected teams to create terror asynchronously.

But that would explain only the frequency, not the cause. Ghetto-ization in all Indian cities is a major problem, and one I suspect very few have understood that fully.
posted by the cydonian at 8:40 PM on July 29, 2008