Mumbai attacks: police search for perpetrators as death toll exceeds 180
The toll of victims of yesterday's attacks in Mumbai's suburbs continues to rise. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks; the main suspects are Islamic terrorists. International condemnation has poured in.
Mumbai (AsiaNews/Agencies) The death toll of yesterday's attacks on trains and stations in the suburbs of Mumbai, in India's Maharashtra state, has risen to 183 and 624 people have been injured. The police released the latest information as they continued to search for leads about the perpetrators of the seven devastating coordinated blasts. Last night, after the government held an emergency meeting, Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, said: "All possible measures will be taken to maintain law and order and defeat the forces of terrorism".
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion has fallen on the Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET, Army of the Pure). New Delhi said the type of attack coordinated, targeting trains at rush hour was characteristic of LET, whose spokesman however said: "Our battle is against Indian troops and no one else." The Lashkar-e-Taiba held to be affiliated to al-Qaeda is a pro-Pakistan Islamic group, which already has several massacres of Hindus on its hands in the context of the separatist guerrilla war in Kashmir.
The blasts, all recorded between 6 and 6.30pm, went off at a time when millions of workers were going back home in the city centre. Mumbai, with 18 million residents, is the Union's financial capital. "We've got all kinds of traumatic injuries, some lost limbs,'' said Dr Supriya Kulkarni, who was tending to the wounded at one of the city's overwhelmed hospitals. ''We've had amputations and people have lost a lot of blood.''
An international chorus of condemnation followed the attack. The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, said he was "appalled" by yesterday's attacks. "These acts," he said, ''serve only to reaffirm that terrorism constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security''. US President George W. Bush said the attacks would ''only strengthen the resolve of the international community to stand united against terrorism''. Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri called on New Delhi to join Islamabad in a fight against both Islamic and Hindu extremism. He added that it was time for the nuclear-armed rivals to resolve their dispute over Kashmir. India and Pakistan have been fighting over the entire Kashmir region for years; it was the cause of two (1948 and 1965) out of three wars pitting the two states against each other since independence from Great Britain in 1947.
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