Mumbai train blasts
At least 70 people have been killed in seven explosions on crowded rush-hour commuter trains in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, police said.Officials said more than 300 people were injured in the blasts, which took place between 6:20 and 7 p.m. (1250 and 1330 GMT) when the trains were packed with commuters making their way home.
The numbers of dead and injured seem to be growing since the linked article was first published. Whatever the final numbers, it is obvious that this is a horrific event.
Of course one of the big questions you will see floated around is whether this was the work of Al-Qaida or home gorwn militants, particularly Kashmiris. My analysis is that this is a distinction without a difference. Just as Britain’s 7/7 bombing last year was ‘home grown’ and also Al-Qaida, I expect that this atrocity has dual responsibility as well.
Al-Qaida always was interested in being a unifying thread for local jihadism. To some extent, the disruptions of their chain of command following 9/11 may have facilitated that (and certainly the fame from that attack didn’t hurt either.)
Combating this threat, local extremists with internation support, is extremely difficult. It takes every tool availible from monitoring communications of known and suspected extremists, monitoring global financial networks for connections, and perhaps most importantly information from within the Muslim community itself.
In any event, the blasts in India are a sad reminder that global jihadist terrorism remains a signifigant problem.
Update: It occurs to me that I should post this:
as an expression of sympathy and solidarity.
