Quotes of the Day

Tuesday, Aug 26, 2003

It was just around lunchtime, and the streets of Bombay were emptier than usual. Still, Hanif, an ice-cream vendor near the Gateway of India, was feeling hopeful. A busload of Hindu pilgrims on their way back to Rajasthan had stopped here for a look at the city's most famous landmark, a gigantic stone arch overlooking the Arabian Sea which had been built by India's British rulers to commemorate the 1911 visit of King George V. The pilgrims were hanging over the sea wall, looking at the water or posing for pictures. Soon, he thought, they would want something cold.

The force of the explosion knocked Hanif to the ground before he even heard it. Another man fell on top of him. Lying there, he realized what had happened. "We have always feared something like this," he says. "Every time we find a box or a toy that is lying around, we panic and call the police."

This time, however, the bomb was planted in a taxi parked innocuously between the Gateway and the luxury Taj Mahal Hotel, about 10 meters away. The explosion ripped into the crowds milling around the tourist attraction, turned cars into twisted, burning hulks and shattered several windows in the hotel. Eyewitnesses say some bystanders were thrown into the sea by the force of the blast.

In the seconds after the explosion, Hanif thought he should get up and run. The man above him was screaming. He pushed him aside and then nearly threw up. "His arm was gone," Hanif recalls. "It was just hanging from a bit of skin." The ground around him was littered with corpses and debris and people were screaming in pain and terror. It took Hanif some time to realize he was safe before he began to help security guards take care of the injured. "Allah saved me," he says.

Just four minutes earlier, an even more fearsome explosion occurred at the Zaveri bazaar, a crowded jewelry market full of shoppers, office workers and tourists four kilometers away. Another taxi bomb, this one parked outside a fresh juice store, killed scores of people.

The bazaar sits very close to the Mumbadevi temple, after whose goddess the city takes its official name of Mumbai. Police investigators say that Hindu temple pilgrims were possibly the target, but there were many Muslim victims in this predominantly Islamic neighborhood as well.

While no one has yet claimed responsibility for the bombings, authorities are focusing their investigation on Islamic terrorists who instigated a series of smaller bombings in retaliation for the Gujarat riots which last year killed up to 2,000 Muslims. The central government is pointing the finger at remnants of the outlawed Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the Kashmiri separatist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. "In almost all these cases, the organization involved has been SIMI in conjunction with the Lashkar-e-Taiba," said Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani. "Whether today's blast also is the handicraft of the same organization will depend upon the investigations." Previous attacks targeted suburban areas and had not claimed many lives. The latest bombings, close by the city's best-known landmarks, were the worst instances of violence the financial center has seen in a decade. Initial reports put the death toll at 44, with as many as 150 injured.

As the investigation into the twin attacks continued on Tuesday, security has been tightened in Mumbai and across much of India, especially around temples, mosques and public areas as a period of Hindu festivals begins. Regardless of who is ultimately responsible for the deadly attacks, the unimaginable chaos they caused has raised tensions across the country. "This is the work of the Devil," said Mohammad Afzal, a Zaveri shopkeeper whose clothes were stained with the blood of victims he had helped rush to the hospital. "These people have no cause, no religion, no God."

• MEENAKSHI GANGULY
• Twin bombs erupt near Bombay landmarks as authorities point the finger at Islamic extremist groups