Indian detectives scrambled for a breakthrough yesterday into the Mumbai bombings that killed 17 people and left baffled police hunting for clues and suspects in the monsoon rains.
There were fears that the torrential downpours that have hit the country’s financial and entertainment capital since the rush-hour blasts on Wednesday evening may hamper the probe, washing away vital forensic clues.
Teams of detectives have begun the painstaking process of scouring security camera footage taken from the three bomb sites in south and south central Mumbai to try to put together a complete picture of what happened.
Photo: AFP
Forensic examination of debris has already indicated that the bombs, hidden in the crowded streets, used ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer ingredient commonly used in improvised explosive devices.
On Thursday evening, the head of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, Rakesh Maria, said that the driving seasonal rain had hindered the scientists.
“Because of [the] rain, it will take a little longer for them to provide us details about the other aspects of the explosive device,” he told a news conference in the city.
Devices using ammonium nitrate have been used in the past by a homegrown militant outfit, the Indian Mujahideen, which has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks across India in recent years.
They include a series of deadly bombings in the capital, New Delhi, in September 2008, and in the western city of Ahmedabad earlier that year.
Two suspected members of the group were arrested in Mumbai last week in connection with the Ahmedabad attacks and are now being questioned about the latest bombings, India’s interior ministry said in a statement.
However, Maria declined to speculate on who was responsible and struck a note of caution about reports that a severed head found at one of the scenes and a body embedded with wires suggested a suicide attack.
“We are not confining ourselves to any one group. At the moment all possibilities are being examined,” he told reporters. “As the investigation progresses, the angles, the possibilities narrow down and we will be able to pinpoint the individuals responsible for this ... All angles are being covered. It’s too early to say human bomb.”
Indian newspapers yesterday focused on the lack of an immediate breakthrough, amid widespread anger at the return of terror to the city after the 2008 attacks on Mumbai that left 166 people dead and more than 300 wounded.
“Intel: 0 Leads: 0” said a frontpage headline on the local Daily News and Analysis, questioning Interior Minister P. Chidambaram’s assertion on Thursday that there had been no intelligence failure.
The daily said promises to improve intelligence sharing and set up fully functional rapid-reaction squads to deal with terror strikes had not been fulfilled.
India’s police, security and intelligence agencies were heavily criticized for their response to the brazen Islamist militant strike in November 2008, which hit landmark targets in the city.
The Mumbai Mirror tabloid added that police were hunting an associate of the suspected Indian Mujahideen members, who allegedly slipped a police dragnet on Wednesday, just hours before the bombings.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of