MUMBAI: Three near-simultaneous explosions rocked Mumbai at
rush-hour on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people in what the
government said appeared to be another terrorist strike in the city hit
by a major attack nearly three years ago.
Maharashtra chief
minister Prithviraj Chavan said the latest attack killed 17 people, and
home minister P Chidambaram said the toll was likely to rise.
Television
footage showed dozens of police officials, several of them armed, at
the sites of the explosion and at least one car with its windows
shattered. A photograph showed victims of a blast at the Zaveri Bazaar
crowding into the back of a cargo truck to be taken to a hospital.
Because
of the close timing of the string of explosions, ``we infer that this
was a coordinated attack by terrorists,’’ home minister Palaniappan
Chidambaram said.
One blast hit the crowded neighborhood of
Dadar in central Mumbai. The others were at the Zaveri Bazaar, which is
a famed jewelry market, and the busy business district of Opera House,
both in southern Mumbai and several miles (kilometers) apart, police
said.
All three blasts happened from 6:50pm. to 7pm., when all
the neighborhoods would have been packed with office workers and
commuters.
The 2008 attack killed 166 people and was blamed on
Pakistan-based militant groups. Tensions escalated between the
countries and peace talks were suspended. The talks recently resumed
and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister is due on India visit in the same month
for composite dialogue.
Soon after Wednesday’s blasts were
reported, Pakistan’s government expressed distress on the loss of lives
and injuries, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yudsuf Raza
Gilani have condemned Wednesday blasts.
The blasts would mark
the first major attack on Mumbai since the November 2008 violence, when
10 terrorists laid siege to the city for 60 hours, targeting two luxury
hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station. There was no
immediate indication that Wednesday’s blasts were part of a prolonged
siege. Online
