Serial Blasts Rock Indian Cities
A series of three blasts have rocked the Indian cities of Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi. According to Rediff.com, these were low-intensity blasts, and took place within five minutes of each other, which indicates fairly precise planning. While Rediff estimates the initial death toll to be five people, CNN-IBN reports that at least 12 people have died, and several are injured.
NDTV has quoted the minister of state for home, Sriprakash Jaiswal, as saying:
One thing is clear that this is a conspiracy. Not sure which organization. (The) motive is to disturb communal harmony. I appeal to people to remain united.
These blasts come a few days after three militants belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM), a terrorist organization based in Pakistan, reportedly confessed to a plot to kidnap Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader widely expected to lead the party one day. They had planned to hold Gandhi hostage and demand the release of 42 militants in exchange. There is no indication, of course, that the JEM has anything to do with these blasts, but these events demonstrate the continued danger India faces from terrorism.
Update: In most cases, the day of an attack is too early to determine who’s carried it out — but there’s hunger for news, and media outlets get at it nevertheless.
Banned Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia (HuJI) is believed to be behind the serial blasts that rocked the Uttar Pradesh on Friday killing over a dozen people besides injuring several others.
Sources in the security agencies said the terror strike could be seen as a revenge by the banned outfit for the assault on its members including the recent incident when lawyers manhandled three Jaish-e-Mohammed militants arrested in Lucknow last week.
They said Jaish could have sought the help of HuJI as both the outfits followed the Deoband sect of Islam.
Meanwhile, according to CNN-IBN:
Intelligence sources said little known outfit Indian Mujahideen have taken responsibility of the blast.
Apparently someone emailed a police officer, so that’s how they know. Rediff carries a report in which terrorism expert B Raman is quoted as saying:
I believe these blasts have the stamp of jihadi terrorism. Like the 1993 blasts in Mumbai it has been carried out on Friday immediately after prayers.
Politicians are already busy trying to score brownie points. LK Advani of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been on TV blaming Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP), for intelligence failures. The Left parties have followed suit. Mayawati, in turn, has countered by saying that central intelligence agencies weren’t sharing information with state intelligence agencies, thus shifting the onus onto the central government, which hasn’t blamed anyone yet.
Shivraj Patil, the union home minister, has announced a high alert in other parts of UP, and the Delhi and Maharashtra governments have followed suit. The US has condemned the attacks, stating that such acts “strengthen the resolve of all well-intentioned people, including India’s friends in the international community, to defeat terrorism and build peace based on rule of law.”
If you have the stomach for it, you can check out pictures of the aftermath from NDTV and CNN-IBN. [Ed. note: viewer discretion advised]
Mumbai-based Amit Varma blogs at India Uncut
“Not sure which organization.”
Hmmmm….
Tiny minority of “extremists”?
“Religion of Peace”?
“Hijackers of a “Great” ‘religion’ “?
“Misunderstanders of Islam”?
All of the above?
Since 9/11 there have been more than 10,000 terrorist attacks by Muslims across the planet — from places as far afield as the Philippines, Afghanistan, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, France, Germany, USA, Canada, UK, Belgium, Denmark, Russia, Georgia, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Indonesia, Chad, Algeria, Morocco, Spain, and Italy.
There is one common thread — and one common thread ONLY — and that thread is Islam.
The thread is made of different strands, including all the major and many of the minor strains of Islam, Sunni, Shia, and even the strain thought by many to be the most ‘moderate’ Sufi Islam — and the perpetrators have quoted chapter and verse from the Koran and the execrable life of Islam’s violent troubled “prophet” Muhammad to justify their blitz on the world. Yet we continue to pretend that a nightmare isn’t upon us — that Muslims haven’t infiltrated our societies to a frightening extent — that the ideology of Islam doesn’t pose a mortal threat to all non-Muslims, and that each strain of Islam doesn’t pose a mortal threat to each other strain of Islam.
We pretend we aren’t in a nightmare because we don’t know what to do if we admit it. But we won’t find our way out of this nightmare until we admit that we are in one — a nightmare caused by Islam, and the Muslims who perpetuate Islam.
Whether it’s the suicide murderer, or the bakesale a the local mosque — it’s all designed to futher the spread of Islam — to further Islam’s grip — to further Islam’s intimidation of all who resist Islam’s conquest.
It’s all Jihad. It’s all Islam. There are no distinctions to be made any longer, and there’s scant evidence that the Muslims, the supposedly peaceful ones, are doing a thing to counter the premise of the “radicals”. They continue to harbor terrorists in their communities, to coddle them, to support them, and then deny that they knew anything about Omar’s intentions after mass murder is committed. How long is the “infidel” world supposed to hold off retaliating? Until we’re all maimed and dead? I somehow think that is exactly the plan the Muslims have in mind. We’re fools to allow it.