Hindu Voice UK, August 2008

At least 55 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a series of 19 low intensity blasts which shook the Indian city of Ahmedabad on 26th July 2008. The bombs were planted in tiffins, usually used for food, hanging on bicycles stationed in various parts of the city.

The large number and sheer cold and calculating planning of the bomb attacks has deeply shaken India. To illustrate this, Ahmedabad Civic Hospital was targeted several minutes after other bomb blasts in the locality. The idea was to strike deeper terror at the previous victims and their families, who were at that time rushing to the hospital.

There were touching stories such as that of a young teenager who went to do sewa (selfless service) to help victims of the first bomb blasts in his locality. He was involved in helping people get to the hospital when a bomb went off outside the hospital, thus ending his life.

Six bombs were found and diffused elsewhere in Ahmedabad that night and a further 18 in the neighbouring city of Surat the next day. As a result, the public have been afraid to go out, and schools, cinema halls and many other public buildings were shut down.

A group calling themselves the “Indian Mujahideen” claimed responsibility for the atrocities, calling on Muslims to punish the “irresolute kafireen [infidels] of India.” They claimed to be acting on behalf of Indian Muslims in revenge for, amongst other things, the 2002 Gujarat riots as well as a series of other grievances.

However, the Indian intelligence agencies have stated their belief that the “Indian Mujahideen” is a front for other groups who are trying to incite a more widespread terrorist trend amongst Indian Muslims by pretending to be Indian Muslims. The police intercepted messages from the Bangladesh based terrorist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) indicating their hand in the planning.

Three men have been named by police as likely masterminds behind the blasts, Rasool Khan, Sohail Khan and Mufti Sufiyan. On July 29 police detained three further suspects, Abdul Qadir, Hasil Mohammad and Hussain Ibrahim, near Limbi on Rajkot-Ahmedabad highway in Surendranagar district, while they were leaving Ahmedabad soon after the blasts.

The Ahmedabad blasts came a day after a similar series of blasts in India’s IT hub of Bengalaru (formerly Bangalore) which killed 2 people and injured 20. In May, blasts in Rajasthan killed 80. Hence there is widespread fear that anti-Indian terrorism is entering a new more dangerous phase.