Bomb blasts in 7 areas of Bombay (or Mumbai) within 11 minutes (from 6.24 pm to 6.35 pm) was a terrible news, though cannot be very unexpected. The railway is the life line of Bombay, and during rush hour, hundreds of people crush themselves into each compartment. population density would be the highest in such compartments during those rush hours, and anyone who has experienced this in Mumbai local train is not likely to forget it in his/her life time.
These blasts occurred only in first class compartments, which are more expensive (10 times more expensive than second class compartment), and comparatively less crowded. is there a reason to target first class compartments? (I read in BBC internet news report which had erroneously reported that first class passengers can be identified beforehand).
There is no way to distinguish who will climb into any compartment, because there is no booking in local trains, you just climb in. You don’t even have to buy a ticket to get into a railway station or a train, and you are fined only if you are caught by some handful of ticket checkers who seem to be present mostly during the first week of beginning of a month (salaries are paid, so people will have money to pay fines). Anyway, what I want to say is, there’s no security system as such, and I remember how just 1 year before (7/7) London railway series blasts police could check video of passengers getting into the stations.
If the blasts were done by LeT (lakshar e Toiba) or some such fanatic group who usually claim to fight for Islam. They would have harmed Muslim passengers as well (reports already show that some Muslim passengers have indeed died in these 7/11 blasts). These terrorist actions create mass psychological impact as well. Though I hope it won’t lead to religious disharmony and riots. Focusing on a single identity of the religion of the attackers (terrorists) and generalizing it on to a whole community is as criminal a thing. If such a terrorist was a woman, then are all females to blame? If one of them is left-handed, then are all left-handed people to be judged?
We live in a complex world and each individual has such multiple identities. Everyone is a minority in that sense, or even unique… for example, you might be the only person who is 5.11 inches tall, has light brown skin, a square jaw, a spot on your left ear, and can speak 3 specific languages, with a liking for sports cars. But such rational or logical thinking often seems alien and riots and mob killings have occurred in Mumbai as well in other areas of India before. These lead to a vicious cycle and more terrorists are created.
The common error or judging a whole group as good or evil increases during intense emotional states. And the suicide squads formed as early as 13th century (called Fidayeen) in the middle-east Asia was trying to achieve the same panic state of mind, and blind retaliation and its cyclic process. (I have used the word fidayeen for its historical purpose only and not in any religious context, but that word seemed to have become synonymous with suicide squads). Similarly terrorists are attempting to bring about macro level changes by creating unexpected micro event/s, and we need to think & prepare ourselves to defeat the purposes of such inhumane acts.
The 7/11 blasts have killed almost 200 people and injured many more. Thousands would have been shocked by the impact and noise as well. But amazingly the always on-the-go Mumbai spirits has withstood many such major shocks previously and hope it does so again... Of course, Mumbai police is providing information about people injured in the blasts through their website (even a decade ago, it woulda been sci-fi), the link is http://www.mumbaipolice.org/images/news_cp/1blast/blast.htm and the information is pretty detailed and done quickly; remarkable!
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