Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘india’

By now, most everyone knows about the terrorist bombing on the Samjhauta Express train between India and Pakistan, which killed at least 66 people:

Two bombs exploded aboard a train bound from India to Pakistan, sparking a fire that killed at least 66 passengers on Monday, an apparent attempt to sabotage a peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals.

One person was detained in connection with the midnight blasts on the train about 80 km north of New Delhi, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was quoted as saying.

The Samjhauta Express runs between Dehli and Attari in India and Wagah and Lahore in Pakistan twice a week, and is nicknamed the “Friendship Train” or the “Peace Train”, due to its route between the two rival countries. The symbolism of literally trying to derail peace must have been too tempting for the terrorists to resist.

Meanwhile, neither India nor Pakistan appears prepared to take the bait:

There was no finger-pointing by India and Pakistan, as there has been so often in the past after violent attacks.

The prime ministers of the two countries called each other and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the attack would not be allowed to undermine the two countries’ peace efforts.

Progress? Or numbness to terrorism in a part of the world that has seen far too much of it already? It’s hard to say. But more people are dead for no reason today. That’s all anyone can state for certain. The rest? Who knows?

I can’t help it. But my first cynical reaction to today’s horrific terrorist transit bombings in Mumbai was that the reaction in the Western media wouldn’t be anywhere near as frenzied as it was for 9/11, 3/11, or 7/7, because to much of the world, India is just so far away and remote and different from us and an attack in India is not as immediate or threatening as an attack in New York or Madrid or London.

Of course, that’s not really the case. We’re one world and the reverberations of today’s attacks will be felt everywhere. But the knee-jerk cynicism is there just the same, and it says otherwise.

Over 150 people are dead for no good reason today. Hopefully we won’t lose sight of that.

What can be said about this?

Three powerful bombs tore through New Delhi markets packed with families and shoppers on Saturday ahead of the biggest Hindu and Muslim festivals of the year, killing more than 50 people and wounding scores.

Charred bodies, blood, glass and smoking debris littered the blast scenes as rescuers frantically pulled out the dead and wounded while thousands of shocked survivors milled around trying to find out what had happened to missing relatives.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared the coordinated blasts, set off within minutes of each other, an act of terrorism. He said it was too early to speculate who was to blame.

I’m not sure what’s worse – the attacks themselves, or the likelihood that they’ll get quickly shrugged off as merely the latest in a long list of terrorist attacks. There’s very little that can shock the world anymore, sadly.

There have been two bombings in Mumbai, India. At least 46 are dead and over 100 injured:

One of the blasts occurred near the colonial-era Gateway to India monument — a famous landmark and popular tourist attraction — during lunch-hour.

Another blast struck in or close to one of the city’s main Hindu temples.

The explosive devices were inside the trunks of two taxis, police said.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blasts, which occurred during the busy lunch time period, but police say they suspect militant Islamic groups who have been blamed in the past for several bomb attacks in Mumbai.

The reaction of the news media seems to be less shock than tiredness, with the whole religious conflict that has cost far too many lives already and threatens to cost many more. The latest flare-up seems to be the release of an archaeological report about a Muslim mosque site that Hindus claim used to hold a Hindu temple. But this is yet another chapter in the seemingly endless saga.

And of course, if it’s not the Middle East, then it doesn’t get front page attention. Maybe it takes an incident like this for the world to notice. Cold comfort to the families of the killed and injured.