According to the Madrid scheme

Seven explosions rocked India

Unknown criminals yesterday staged a massive terrorist attack in the commercial capital of India, Mumbai (Bombay). During the evening rush hour, when hundreds of thousands of citizens were traveling home from work, seven explosive devices went off on the railway trains connecting various areas of the city of nine million. By evening, 147 people were known to have died, and the number of wounded exceeded 400 people. One of the explosions was so strong that it turned not only the carriage, but also the platform near which the train was located. The security services reportedly managed to defuse another bomb. After the terrorist attacks in the metropolis, cellular communications were cut off due to overload, and train traffic was stopped. Consul of the Russian Consulate General in Mumbai Nikolai Fursov said that there were no Russians among those killed or injured in the explosions.

Just yesterday, a little earlier, there was an attack on tourists in the state of Srinagar: bandits blew up their bus with a grenade, killing six people. After this series of terrorist attacks, the country's authorities declared a state of emergency throughout India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for calm among citizens and called the incident "a vile and cowardly attempt to spread fear of terror among citizens." So far no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. There is speculation that they may be backed by Islamic terrorists from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which is considered the Indian branch of al-Qaeda. Vladimir Putin sent a telegram last night to President of India Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, where, on behalf of the people of Russia, he expressed sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims and asked to convey words of sympathy to all the victims.

The terrorist attacks in Bombay were carried out according to a scheme very similar to the one that terrorists used in Madrid on March 11, 2004. That morning, nine explosions occurred on commuter trains. 191 people died, about one and a half thousand were injured. The large number of victims is the result of the fact that there are many passengers in the relatively small enclosed spaces of the cars during rush hour, and even a small explosive device leads to mass deaths. In addition, such a scheme paralyzes the transport system of a large city and affects millions of residents. A similar scheme was used by attackers in the London Underground on July 7, 2005, when 56 people died.

Vladimir DZAGUTO