Mumbai Bomb Blast India (2)

Among the grieving voices and the resilient the Mumbaikar (Indian expression for a person stays in Mumbai) has shown, we Indonesians expats in India and I personally should feel fortunate that none of the train bombing victims are an Indonesian. Indian PM Dr. Manmohan Singh addressed the nation today urged Indian people to stay calm and are not provoked by any rumours regarding the perpetrators behind the terror attacks.

The casualties now are reaching 190 dead and 403 injured some predicts it’s well over 190 dead and more than 700 wounded. If you’ve been to Mumbai or Mumbaikar yourself who’s now stays elsewhere, googlemap will show you where the incident took place.

Incentive for the Victims

Government will provide an amount of RS 100,000 for dead victims, and RS 50,000 for the injured or about U$ 2,300 AND U$ 1,150 respectively.

The Suspects

From many official sources broadcast by local news channel like NDTV, TIMES NOW, and CNN-IBN, there are some possibilities of who behind the terror attacts. Their fingers mainly pointed to Lashkar-e Tayyiba more known as LeT, a militant outfit based in Kashmir who are finghting for separation of Kashmir from India. Another suspect is SIMI or Student Islamic Movement of India who were just banned by Indian government a few years back. LeT categorically denied the accusation and no statement is made by SIMI on this regard.

In the meanwhile, from the very beginning or few hours after the attacks, the government had pointed their fingers towards its neighbour, Pakistan and now it also doesn’t rule the possibility of Bangladesh. A country India helped to free itself from Pakistan a couple of decades ago.

The accusation against Pakistan however seems much stronger as these two neighbours known for their love-hate relation (more hate than love, though) ever-since both countries gained their independence from British empire six decades back. The hardcore issue of their everlasting animosity is Kashmir. The most beautiful region in South Asia in many senses of the term: from geographical point of view (located in the foothill of the mighty Himalaya); and the knightly attitude of its population.

Kashmir is supposed to be the most attractive tourism destination in the region. Alas, it turns out to be, as former US Secretary Collin Powell put it, “one of the hottest spot in the world beside Afghanistan and the Middle East (Israel-Palestine).” It will remains so for a long long time to come.

The cruelty of politics as we can see is much more ferocious than any other types of viciousness.

Jul 13, 2006