Multiple Bombs Detonated on Bombay Rail System

Last Update at 4:20 pm ET. The railway system and rush hour commuters were the targets of a series of bombings in the Indian city of Bombay (Mumbai), the country’s financial capital. According to an updated Associated Press story, “Tuesday evening’s first explosion hit a train at a railway station in the northwestern suburb of Khar, said a police officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Other blasts followed down the line of the western railway at the Mahim, Bandra, Matunga, Borivili, Mira Road and Jogeshwari stations… Deshmukh, the state’s top elected official, also corrected initial reports of seven blasts, saying there had actually been eight, including two at one station.” The attacks occurred at stations on the Western Metro Line, in a series of stations along a straight line (the ‘red’ line in the accompanying map) in just an 11-minute span.

Reuters reports at least 163 people have been killed and 460 wounded. The Bangkok Post reports, “The blasts were timed to inflict maximum fatalities during the rush-hour when people were on their way home from work.” “Right now it is not possible for us to give the number of fatalities. We are busy rushing the injured to the hospitals and removing the dead,” said Bombay Police Commissioner AN Roy.

Other terrorist attacks in India: Near-simultaneous explosions in three locations in New Delhi on October 29, 2005 killed dozens, hours after India and Pakistan began talks on opening border in disputed Kashmir to aid earthquake victims. The city of Bombay was rocked in 2003 when two car bombs were detonated near a hotel and a Hindu temple. The 2003 bombings killed 44 and wounded over 150. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan terrorist organization with deep ties to al Qaeda, was implicated in this attack. LeT was also responsible for the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, where 15 were killed. This incident nearly caused a war between India and Pakistan. The Times of India has a chronology of Mumbai attacks since December 2002.

The major Indian cities have been placed on high alert after the bombings. “Police contingents had been deployed at shrines and vital installations in the capital [Delhi],” according to IANS. Police dogs, spotters, and other assets have been deployed at railway stations and airports. There is no indication at this point if the attacks are al Qaeda related or one of the various India insurgent groups, no group has claimed responsibility yet (12 noon ET) . The attacks are reminiscent of the March 11, 2004 strikes on Madrid’s railway system, as there are multiple bombs detonated nearly simultaneously during a heavy travel period, with the purpose of inflicting mass-casualties.

An anonymous intelligence source told the Times of India the attacks were “carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba and local Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activists and was designed to trigger communal conflagration in the country’s financial capital.” MSNBC reports Indian intelligence view Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian terrorist and underground crime boss with links to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, as the prime suspect in today’s bombings. Dawood was designated as a terrorist by the U.S.Treasury Department on October 16, 2003:

Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian crime lord, has found common cause with Al Qaida, sharing his smuggling routes with the terror syndicate and funding attacks by Islamic extremists aimed at destabilizing the Indian government. He is wanted in India for the 1993 Bombay Exchange bombings and is known to have financed the activities of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (Army of the Righteous), a group designated by the United States in October 2001 and banned by the Pakistani Government — who also froze their assets — in January 2002.

Douglas Farah noted the links between al Qaeda and the criminal underworld in December, and specifically pointed to Dawood Ibrahim: “There is also growing evidence of the willingness of al Qaeda and its affiliates to occassionally hook up with organized criminal groups, sometimes blending the two into one operation, as is the case with Dawood Ibrahim.” Aaron Mannes provides additional background information on Dawood Ibrahim (July 11 entry).

CT Blog Experts on LeT

Evan Kohlmann’s dossier on GlobalTerrorAlert.com (Acrobat file)

Victor Comras on recent US Treasury Department designation of LeT affiliates

Steven Emerson on Pakistani inaction against LeT

Douglas Farah on banned Islamic charities operating openly in Pakistan

Andrew Cochran on LeT efforts in Kashmir & Pakistan Earthquake Zones and on LeT-affiliated terrorists in the United States

Andrew Cochran notes the House International Relations Committee will hold a full committee hearing on the “Sale of F-16 Aircraft and Weapons Systems to Pakistan” on July 13, 2006.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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