Terrorist attacks in Mumbai

It turns out that a third of the people killed in Hyderabad were killed by police firing on a “mob” after the event. Lots of blame to go around here. Is there any point in organizing a violent instant mass protest against a terrorist attack? Do you think the police will just let you riot? And the police, why would you use real bullets? The police are claiming that the mob was trying to attack a petrol pump (gas station), as always, I don’t trust anything anyone says in the immediate aftermath.

Meanwhile, the fingers quickly point to various Islamic terrorist outfits. It is the usual formula to blame a Jihadic islamic terrorist organization for every terrorist blast in India. Unfortunately, police work after events like these is still shoddy and it is never clear what actually happened, what lessons can be learned, or if anyone responsible is actually tried and convicted.

BTW, just read the comments that accompany this following story to see how nasty communal sentiments still are. The Hindus on the comments accuse the Muslims of planting the bombs, and vice versa. Hyderabad is a city of 6 million people, 40% Muslim and home to a booming tech industry. If you’re a terrorist wanting to start something, it’s a perfect little cauldron.

NDTV.com: Harkat-ul-Jihad likely behind blast: Police

On Friday, Hyderabad was struck by a double tragedy. It has now emerged that some of the people who were killed, died in the police firing after the blast. A bandh has been called in Hyderabad and Secunderabad on Wednesday. The strike is in protest against the police firing that followed the blast. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S R Reddy has, in a statement, apologised for the police firing. He said a CBI inquiry will be ordered into the incident if it is required. Hours after the terror attack, it came to light that some of those killed in the Mecca Masjid died in the police firing. A powerful bomb exploded during the busy Friday afternoon prayers that close to 10,000 people were attending. Just after the blast there was utter chaos. Mobs went on a rampage outside the Masjid and the police resorted to lathicharge and firing in the air. As the dead and injured were being accounted for, it was found that some had bullet wounds. Reports suggest at least five of the dead had these wounds. However, the Chief Minister said that only two to three people may have died in police firing.

Technorati Tags: India, Hyderabad, Terrorism

Homemade Bombs Kill 65 on Indian Train – New York Times

DIWANA, India, Feb. 19 — On an Indian train bound for Pakistan, two homemade bombs exploded at midnight yesterday, trapping slumbering passengers in the flames and killing at least 65 people. The office of the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, today called the attack “an act of terror” and promised to apprehend those responsible. Pakistan swiftly condemned it. The incident comes on the eve of the visit of Pakistani foreign minister, Khursheed Kasuri, to the Indian capital, and two weeks before officials from both countries are to meet for the first time to share information on terror-related activities.

Horrible. The motive is clear, to keep tensions between India and Pakistan high, but it appears that for the first time that I can remember, the Indian government is not taking the bait.

“This is an act of sabotage,” the Indian Railway Minister Laloo Prasad told reporters in the eastern city of Patna, according to wire service reports. “This is an attempt to derail the improving relationship between India and Pakistan.”

Laloo is a notorious politician, but he got this statement exactly right, I remain hopeful that the resolution of the Kashmir issue is only a matter of time.

There had been no security searches before passengers boarded the train. Nodding towards the row of police officers frisking people at the entrance to the station, opening suitcases and checking hand bags, Aslam said: “None of that was there yesterday.”

Boy, that’s not very smart, is it?

This can’t be great for Kerala, and something to keep an eye on.

Austere version of Islam finding a home in India – Los Angeles Times

The change came several years ago for Maryam Arrakal. Her husband brought a black, all-covering abaya back to this steamy, subtropical town from the desert sands of Saudi Arabia. It contrasted starkly with the pastel saris she normally wore. But in the 12 years that her husband, Kunchava, had been running a Saudi fabric shop, he had become detached from this melting pot of Muslims, Hindus and Christians, and more drawn to the Saudis’ strict version of Islam.

In general, a well written article. The combination of all the new money, influence and free time (when you come back “home”, you’re rich, you don’t have to work for a living) could be diverted to other things, but religion always seems to win out!

Kerala’s elders often boasted that Hindus, Muslims, Christians and a smattering of smaller religious groups were Indians first. Religious identity took a back seat to class interests. The Communist Party and the conservative Indian National Congress dominated elections.

This is the first time I have ever heard the Congress party being described as conservative. The author tries too hard to fit Indian politics into American clothes, and fails. The Congress is a left leaning market socialist party, if anything. Kerala’s politics are so far to the left of American politics that there is really no frame of reference.

“Muslims themselves are worried by the rise of the militant Islamic organizations,” said Ajai Mangat, Calicut correspondent for the Malayalam Manorama, the province’s largest daily newspaper. “If they become more powerful, the Hindu nationalists become more powerful.”

This is not the first time India has faced religious challenges, it won’t be the last time. I have faith in the giant melting pot to slowly rough the edges away. There will be tension, lives will be lost, as always, but life for the majority of Indians/Keralites will go on.

Where my home state of Tamil Nadu gets into the news for this bizarre story of parental pride gone too far.

Two Indian doctors investigated over claims they let son aged 15 deliver a baby by caesarean | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Two Indian doctors are facing an investigation into claims they let their 15-year-old son perform a caesarean section to get into the Guinness Book of Records.

The government of Tamil Nadu state in southern India today said it was launching an inquiry, according to Indian newspaper reports.

It is alleged the doctors screened a video of their son performing the caesarean at a meeting of the regional branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) last month in the hope their son, Dhileepan Raj, would get into the record book as the world’s youngest surgeon.

I feel like laughing at the parents, but the patient and her fetus were put at grave risk, what idiots!

The Hindu : Front Page : PSLV makes commercial launch

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday successfully made the first commercial launch of a foreign satellite through the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C8). Italian satellite, Agile, weighing 352 kg, was placed in a precise orbit about 550 km above the earth.

The PSLV also carried an ISRO payload, Advanced Avionics Module (AAM), to establish the next generation computers, navigation, guidance, control and telemetry systems that will be used in future launch vehicles. It weighed 185 kg.

ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair called the mission “a 100 per cent success” and “a remarkable achievement.”

He said: “We have made a good entry into the launch business. I hope we will get more and more business opportunities in future. The contract [to launch the Italian satellite] came at a time when there was a complex, competitive environment.”

Indian space research has always been way ahead of just about any other field, a good indication of the research priorities set in the 1970s. The take home message is that if India throws money and attention at a problem, it does seem to have some success. Now if they can only fix this…