Death toll now at 147. “8 Bombs on India Commuter Trains Kill 147,” from AP:
BOMBAY, India (AP) – Eight bombs hit Bombay’s commuter rail network during rush hour Tuesday evening, killing at least 147 people and wounding more than 400 in what authorities called a well-coordinated terrorist attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility in the bombings, which came in quick succession – a common tactic employed by Kashmiri militants. The blasts came hours after a series of grenade attacks by Islamic extremists killed eight people in the main city of India’s part of Kashmir.
India’s major cities were put on high alert. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called an emergency Cabinet meeting and said that “terrorists” were behind the attacks.
Pakistan, India’s rival over the disputed territory of Kashmir, quickly condemned the bombings.
Which doesn’t mean that there aren’t almost certainly a lot of influential people in the Pakistani government who approve of them.
One of the officials said the attacks’ coordinated nature and their targeting of trains at peak travel times match the modus operandi of two Islamic extremist groups that have been active in India during the last several years: Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, or Army of the Righteous, and Jaish-e-Mohammad, or Army of Mohammed.
The U.S. government has designated both groups as terrorist organizations and considers them affiliates of al-Qaida.