Bomb blasts kill 30 in Hyderabad

Byoliveridley

Happens too depressingly often in India. There’s just too many people around, it’s very easy to hide,  counter-surveillance by police/intelligence agencies is lacking. Hopefully, it won’t ignite any  more violence, which is all the terrorists are hoping to do.

Over 32 killed as terror strikes Hyderabad-India-The Times of India

In two near-simultaneous terror attacks, at least 32 people were killed and 35 injured in two explosions at a crowded park and a popular eating joint here on Sunday evening, three months after the Mecca Masjid blasts.

Twenty six people died and 22 wounded when an explosion ripped through Gokul Chat Shop at Kothi locality at around 7.30 pm, Andhra Pradesh Home Minister K Jana Reddy told reporters here.

Six people, most of them from outside the state, were killed and 13 injured in another blast five minutes earlier in an open air auditorium in Lumbini Park near the state secretariat in the heart of the city when a laser show was on, he said.

The condition of ten to 15 people in different hospitals of the city was stated to be serious.

Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh, who both visited the blast sites, said it appeared to be a terrorist act.

A red alert was sounded across the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad and neighbouring Karnataka and the national capital Delhi in the wake of the blasts.

Senior police and central intelligence officials indicated that the explosives used in today’s well-planned blasts were similar to those employed in Mecca Masjid explosions which claimed 11 lives in May this year.

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    Tamil MPs play hardball for LTTE

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    Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu will have to resign if the Centre does not come forward to ensure a ceasefire in Sri Lanka within two weeks, according to a resolution adopted at an all-party meet chaired by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Tuesday.

    Asked if this meant Ministers in the Union Cabinet and MPs in the Rajya Sabha would resign in the event of the ceasefire not happening in two weeks, Mr. Karunanidhi told The Hindu that he meant that all MPs would tender their resignation. “Ministers are MPs first, are they not?” he asked.

    via The Hindu : Front Page : T.N. MPs to quit if Centre fails to ensure ceasefire

    As Malini Parthasarathy points out in her editorial, this sudden increase in rhetoric coming from the DMK and other Tamil parties seems to coincide with an apparent impending military breakthrough by the Sri Lankan army. Why apparent? Because the only sources of news are the SL army and the LTTE, and neither, are, shall we say, neutral! Overt support for the LTTE has been absent since the late ’80s and especially since Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, so the timing most definitely reeks of LTTE’s covert influence on the Tamil parties in Tamil Nadu. This would be a good time for the LTTE to get some breathing room and regroup.

    The Central government would become a minority if this threat was carried out. Which is why the Sri Lankan envoy was summoned and India’s “concerns” were addressed, whatever that means.

    I think that the LTTE is a band of ruthless terrorists who should disappear from the face of this Earth. They have systematically eradicated moderate Tamils in their bid to be the only Tamil voice. Additionally, they have killed many civilians, Tamil, Sinhalese and Indian over the course of their bloody insurgency. The Sri Lankan army and polity, of course, are guilty of mass genocide and human rights themselves. But, they have the power of the nation state behind them and smell a final victory. I don’t seem them stopping now.

    How is this going to end? Not very well for the central government, who will lose quite a bit of support after only recently surviving a confidence vote. Not too well for the millions of civilians caught in the conflict, who will bear the brunt of increasing desperation on both sides of the war. Will the LTTE ask for a negotiated ceasefire if things get too hot for them? Probably. Will the Tamils of Northern Sri Lanka ever get the autonomy they so deserve? Not if the Sri Lankan government sees itself as being in a position of strength. So, why was this war fought? I don’t know. But, I don’t believe in war, so there…

    As a great believer in the educational power of fiction, I heartily recommend Love Marriage, a story set in the Sri Lankan tamil community, tells the history from the tamil side. You can read a Q&A with the author at the always excellent Sepia Mutiny.

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    Brotherless Night – Go Read

    Byoliveridley
    Brotherless Night is the book I wanted to read, so I wrote it. VV Ganeshananthan
    Book cover of the book Brotherless night by VV Ganesananthan

    I grew up in Chennai in the 80s and got to witness the Sri Lankan civil war from just across the border. I read about it mostly from the Indian English news media (The Hindu, Indian Express) and remember many parts of the conflict: The initial profusion of Tamil groups, the LTTE takeover, the quick suppression of peaceful/non-violent voices by the LTTE, the Indian “peace” mission, and then much of the mayhem that followed, including the killing of Rajiv Gandhi. My opinions were filtered through my pro-Sanskrit anti-Tamil Brahmin upbringing and I don’t remember being especially sympathetic to the cause back then.

    This book really took me back and filled in the blanks. I learn history best when told through the experiences of those affected the most, the women, children, “civilians”. It’s a beautiful, extremely challenging history lesson on the Sri Lankan war told from the viewpoint of a young woman growing up in Jaffna. VV’s writing makes you read through the horror of war, the clear and repeated threads of who suffers and how no one involved in violence is “noble” or “heroic”. Read it if you are able, trigger warnings all the way with violence, sexual violence, family violence 🙁 It is however a story primarily of resistance, survival and how important it is to catalogue the horrors of war as they are happening, and not let that story get buried in traditional war jingoism.

    In this world we’re in right now, dominated by war coverage and the daily unchallenged assertions by those committing war that they are “right”, “honourable”, “just”, etc., reading accounts of war from the perspective of those most affected are a reminder. They are a reminder that when you commit to continuous violence, even if it starts as self defense or resistance, there’s no nobility there, no heroism: you’re killing human beings, you’re destroying lives, homes, gardens, libraries, schools, music, love and everything that makes us human. I really wish all war coverage focused on what is lost, not on who gained a bridge or how the great leader sitting in his well-protected mansion is waging the war.

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    Meanwhile, in the other India

    Byoliveridley

    While India prepares to spend many billions of dollars on fighter jets, it cannot provide clean water for its citizens.

    Cholera-diarrhoea toll mounts to 164 in Orissa-India-The Times of India

    Cholera and diarrhoea, having assumed epidemic proportions in three tribal dominated Orissa districts, have so far claimed 164 lives as officials confirmed five more deaths in worst-hit Koraput on Thursday.

    The death toll, which had mounted to 159 on Wednesday, further rose to 164 with confirmation of five casualties in Dasmantpur block of Koraput district, Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) R K Agarwal said.

    While the toll in Koraput district went up to 73, the situation remained by and large unchanged in Rayagada with 64 casualties as the killer diseases claimed as many as 27 lives in Kalahandi, official sources said.

    The water-borne diseases had assumed epidemic form in nine blocks of these three backward districts located adjacent to each other though separated by hills and the waterspread of the vast Indravati reservoir.

    Despite state government’s claim to have effectively controlled the spread of the diseases, residents of the affected areas alleged that the administration had failed to provide adequate medical facilities to the patients.

    This is disgusting and very symptomatic of the urban-rural divide that exists in India. Unless the government can provide basic infrastructure to its rural citizens, all those fancy malls and F16s mean little.

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    Mercury Exposure in India?

    Byoliveridley

    Ex-workers ask HLL to accept liability for mercury deaths

    The death of a 47-year-old man who had worked for a Hindustan Lever thermometer factory for 18 years brought out hundreds of ex-employees, who had also been exposed to toxic mercury, to the streets.

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    Well, I don’t know what to say. This tragedy goes on in India continuously, occupational pollution exposure is through the roof in most factories. Safety equipment is not used, enforcement is minimal, all in all, in a country of 1+ billion people, some are more expendable than others.

    I suspect this one is getting more play because a large multinational is involved. But Indian factories are equal opportunity killers, whether owned by large behemoths like Unilever, or by your local rotary club small businessman.

    It looks like they have not even done an autopsy/blood test to look for mercury in this man’s system, so it’s early days.

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    The most important thing I read today (Indian Agriculture Edition)

    Byoliveridley

    Yes, I read the Times article about this subject too, but Tom Philpott and P. Sainath writer better and more eloquently.

    India, food, and modernization | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

    That “promising biotechnology” is Monsanto’s Bt cotton seed, genetically modified to ward off the cotton bollworm. Indian farmers have been desperate to get their hands on it because they think they need it to compete with their lavishly capitalized and subsidized U.S. peers.

    But the Monsanto seed, which promises to enable farmers to use 25 percent less pesticide, might not be worth the premium (it goes for about twice as much as conventional seed, the Times reports). The great Indian journalist P. Sainath wrote recently that “despite all the claims made for [Bt cotton], input dealers here have seen no decline in pesticide sales as a result of its use. Some claim higher sales than before.”

    As prices for seeds and other inputs rise, farmers have seen the price their goods fetch in the marketplace fall or stagnate. The result has been crushing debt burdens, mounting losses, and a stunning surge in suicides among farmers.

    The Times reports that “17,107 farmers committed suicide in 2003, the most recent year for which government figures are available. Anecdotal reports suggest that the high rates are continuing.”

    Well, that’s one way to clear the land of “inefficient” farmers.

    For the enduring scam that is BT cotton, read this.

  • Pakistan helped Kabul terrorist act on Indian Embassy

    Byoliveridley

    American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan’s powerful spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to United States government officials.The conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack, the officials said, providing the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers are actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in the region.

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One Comment

  1. tell me why,all these people like to stand around and pose for pictures.that will not solve anything.instead of showing the horrors,why don’t they start fighting back,to stop the terrorist.if i was a terrorist,all of them poseing would put a nice smile on my face.i did sommething and they are doing nothing.they were,most likily right down the street,setting more explosives.smile for the camera everyone;we have a wounded person here,don’t forget to capture the blood,for a better shot.the world needs to get off it’s butt,and put a stop to all this.there is enough strengh,to get rid of every terrorist out there.so just do it!while i’m at it,syria better wake up to,cause Iran will turn on them to,when they get the chance.all arab league countries better be ware.

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