Group Takes Credit For India Blasts

Little-Known Group Indian Mujahedeen Takes Credit For Attack That Killed 29

(AP)  Bombs exploded near a busy market and a hospital in a western Indian city, killing 29 people and injuring 88 a day after deadly blasts struck the southern technology hub of Bangalore.

A group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack but offered few other details in e-mails sent to several television news stations, the CNN-IBN station reported. The group was unknown before May when it said it was behind a series of bombings in Jaipur, also in western India, that left 61 people dead.

In its latest e-mail Sunday, the group reportedly made no mention of the smaller bombings Friday in Banglaore and it was not clear if the two attacks were connected.

At least 16 bombs went off Saturday evening in several crowded neighborhoods of Ahmadabad - a crowded and historic city that in 2002 was the scene of some of the worst rioting between India's Hindu majority and its Muslim minority.

The bombs went off in two separate spates. The first, near a busy market, left some of the dead sprawled beside stands piled high with fruit, next to twisted bicycles. The second went off near a hospital.

The side of a bus was blown off and its windows shattered while another vehicle was engulfed in flames. Most of the blasts took place in the narrow lanes of the older part of Ahmadabad, which is tightly packed with homes and small businesses. Bomb-sniffing dogs scoured the areas that were hit.

Distraught relatives of the wounded crowded the city's hospitals. One of the wounded was a 6-year-old whose father was killed in the blasts. He lay in a hospital bed with his arms covered in bandages and wounds on his face.

Narenda Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat state where Ahmadabad is located, called the blasts "a crime against humanity." He said the bombings appeared to have be masterminded by a group or groups who "are using a similar modus operandi all over the country."

Prithviraj Chavan, a junior minister in the prime minister's office, called the explosions "deplorable" and said they were set off by people "bent upon creating a communal divide in the country."

The militants' attacks are believed to be an attempt to provoke violence between India's Hindu majority and the Muslim minority.

"Anti-national elements have been trying to create panic among the people of our country. Today's blasts in Ahmadabad seem to be part of the same strategy," federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters in New Delhi.

Those fears were amplified by the history of Ahmadabad, where in 2002 riots between Muslims and Hindus left about 1,000 people, most of them Muslims. The violence was triggered by a fire that killed 60 passengers on a train packed with Hindu pilgrims. Hindu extremists blamed the deaths on Muslims and rampaged through Muslim neighborhoods, although the cause of the blaze remains unclear.

Ahmadabad is also known for the elegant architecture of its mosques and mausoleums, a rich blend of Muslim and Hindu styles. It was founded in the 15th century and served as a sultanate, fortified in 1487 with a wall six miles in circumference and 12 gates, 189 bastions and 6000 battlements.

The government put out an alert warning other cities of the possibility of attacks similar to those that struck Ahmadabad and Bangalore.

On Friday, seven synchronized small bombs killed two people and injured at least five in Bangalore. On Saturday, police found and defused an eighth bomb near a popular shopping mall in Bangalore, said Srikumar, the director general of police in Karnataka state, where the city is located. Like many Indians, he uses only a single name.

[sistatee-2009]

The Indian MOO-HA-JA-DEAN? Sounds expensive.

[downsteamjim]

To demslie2u: Good call. Look at the post after you.

[jmurrieta1]

Islam: a political system wherein all civil matters are controlled by a theocracy that threatens freedom of conscience with death. see IRA and Mafia.

Also known as the "religion of peace". At any border between a country ruled by the Islamic fascist state and another country where other beliefs can be practices, "peace" is maintained by systematic murder and enslavement of those who do not submit to the Islamic masters of a police state masquerading as a religion.

[hurtmorons]

Man..... muslims are so frekin twisted! them weird and spooky religious morons need to be wiped out. They''re BEGGING FOR IT!

[eddom949]

I vote for no more mujahadeen. Oh and no more bombs, kthxbai

[99mohamn]

Modi was the person in charge of the rapes and murders of muslims, mostly women and children in gujarat during the 2002 riots, and this is the same person (who is still surprisingly the "Minister" BTW). This person probably had the bombs planted himself and fabricated the emails claiming responsibility (which is easy to do btw if you know anything about computers and spoofing), all to repeat events from 2002 on a greater scale (a threat that was promised by those rapists in 2002 that those events were "successful")...
... this is so predictable.. just see.. after a few more of these planted bombings.. there will be a consensus (out of thin air) stating "enough is enough", and then ... reason to repeat...and the story goes on..

[99mohamn]

Modi was the person in charge of the rapes and murders of muslims, mostly women and children in gujarat during the 2002 riots, and this is the same person (who is still surprisingly the "Minister" BTW). This person probably had the bombs planted himself and fabricated the emails claiming responsibility (which is easy to do btw if you know anything about computers and spoofing), all to repeat events from 2002 on a greater scale (a threat that was promised by those rapists in 2002 that those events were "successful")...
... this is so predictable.. just see.. after a few more of these planted bombings.. there will be a consensus (out of thin air) stating "enough is enough", and then ... reason to repeat...and the story goes on..