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Cartoon: RK

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‘Terrorism’ anagrams to ‘Tremor Sir’

What’s the price of a Mumbaikar’s life?

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The 193 people whose names appear on this page may have died because someone paid their killers Rs 2 lakh. Or over a thousand rupees a life.

Image Courtesy: Mid Day

Mumbai back on track: A look at some of today’s newspapers

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Design: RK

Front page of today’s newspapers

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Design: RK

The Pattern in Mumbai attacks

• Explosives hidden with stealth.

• Timed to perfection for maximum damage.

The method in all these attacks is similar but for the victims and their families it’s the madness that can never be explained.

There seems to be a sinister pattern in the war room leak, Agni failure, Insat 4 C failure, Srinagar blasts, and the recent Mumbai blasts. Have the people in power by focussing on vote bank politics such as reservation, minority reservation, et all, neglected the countrys security and allowed the enemy deep inside India? This is a frightening thought!

Its Shame that 1993 blast culprits are not yet punished. Till Indian governments follows the Minority appeasement policies, these are bound to happen. Since thousands of years similar cross border terrorist acitivities are happening. How can these happen without the support of the people within? People supporting these activities should be punished swiftly irrespective of their religion. Such kind of people have no right to live in India. People should not forget that these kind of minority appeasement policies only produce people like Hitlers and Nazis, which is more dangerous.

Blasts Rock Mumbai: A Shameful Act

Got this mail from a cousin of mine who resides in Mumbai.

This is another day in history which every Mumbaikar will never forget. At 6.05PM – a time when most of the office-goers are bound home in what is called Mumbai’s lifeline – The local train was hit by a series of Bomb Blasts which have rocked the city tremendously.

I was lucky to be safe and sound in office. Family is also fine. Kam and Vats are safe too.

The series of blasts in Mumbai are shocking and cowardly attempts to spread a feeling of fear and terror among our citizens. My heart reaches out and grieves for all those affected by these blasts and who have lost their near and dear.

It was heartening to see numerous volunteers and the whole of Mumbai supporting each other and going out of their way to help one another. Do you still say it is one of the rudest cities?

Why does telephone networks fail during emergencies?

• Mumbai has about 124 telephone exchanges, which handle 2.31 million telephone lines.

• Mumbai contributes to 10 per cent of the close to 7 million cell phone subscribers in India.

During emergencies, everyone is trying to call at the same time and there aren’t enough routes for the calls to get through from. Since nearly everyone has a cell phone, the problem is compounded.

A network crash ensues when the switching capacity at Switching Centres (the telephone exchange equivalent of mobile phones) is overreached. Furthermore, some hours are marked as Busy Hour Call Attempts (BHCA), during when phone lines are at their busiest, and there is a limit to the number of calls that can be put through in one hour. Big exchanges can handle up to 5 lakh calls per hour. Unfortunately, during BHCA, every number dialled — regardless of if a connection is established or not — is counted as call.

So if you hear an engaged tone, do not re-dial as this will only further reduce the chances of not only yours, but anybody else’s call getting through. Wait for three to five minutes before trying again. Service providers need to work towards increasing their switching capacities before dishing out numbers to prevent crashes such as the one that happened on Tuesday.

What About landlines?
Telephone traffic analysis must be conducted periodically between telephones in different parts of the city. The data should be analysed and if we find that telephone traffic between, say, Borivli and Churchgate exchanges is high, then their handling capacity should be increased.
When a call is made from a mobile phone to a landline, or vice versa, it adds to the calls taken by these exchanges, further burdening them.

CHRONOLOGY – Major attacks in India since 2001

Following is a chronology of some major attacks in India in the past five years:

Oct. 1, 2001 – Militants storm the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly complex, killing about 35.

Dec. 13 – More than a dozen people, including five gunmen, die in an attack on the national parliament complex in New Delhi.

Sep. 24, 2002 – Militants with guns and explosives attack the Akshardham Hindu temple in Gujarat, killing 31 people and wounding more than 80.

May 14 – Militants attack an army camp near Jammu, killing more than 30, including several wives and children of soldiers.

Mar. 13, 2003 – A bomb attack on a commuter train in Mumbai kills 11.

Aug. 25 – Two almost simultaneous car bombs kill about 60 in Mumbai.

Aug. 15, 2004 – Bomb explodes in Assam, killing 16 people, mostly school children, and wounding dozens.

Oct. 29, 2005 – Sixty-six people are killed when three blasts tear through markets in New Delhi.

Mar. 7, 2006 – At least 15 people were killed and 60 wounded in three explosions in Varanasi.

July 11 – More than 100 people are killed in seven bomb explosions at rail stations and on trains in Mumbai.

• Seven blasts in 10 minutes
• Over 200 dead, many more injured
• Terrorists read the railway timetable well
• Entire Western line paralysed
• Prominent local leader under scrutiny
• Cops get fired in late-night Mantralaya meeting
• Once again, Mumbai fights back

Source: Reuters

Mumbai train blasts: ‘Guru Poornima’ turns into ‘Gory Amavasya’

Up to seven blasts have rocked Bombay’s commuter rail network, ripping apart train compartments and reportedly injuring dozens. Hundreds of people returning home are feared dead, many more injured. All the explosions took place in the first class compartments of trains at a time when a majority of Mumbaikars were returning home from office. One television channel showed more than half-a-dozen injured people near the site of another blast in the Khar suburban station of Mumbai. One badly injured person lying near railway tracks was carried away by people using a long sheet of cloth.

Dazed survivors were shown with wounds from injuries to heads, legs and hands on the railway station with little sign of any emergency medical aid. All local phones, including mobile services, in the city had jammed apparently due to congestion in the system as anxious people tried to reach their loved ones.

Police officials said two more explosions took place in the Santa Cruz and Mahim suburbs of the city. CNN-IBN reported a fifth blast had taken place but there was no official confirmation. However, Anil Singh, of the Times of India newspaper told BBC World there were 10 dead from seven explosions. Indian television news channels broadcast images of the wounded sprawled on train tracks and being carried through stations, and The Press Trust of India news agency reported six blasts along the city’s commuter rail network, which is among the most crowded in the world. Reuters said there had been at least four blasts. Rediff.com’s Syed Firdaus Ashraf, who was at Mahim railway station soon after reports of the blast came in, said he could see one train compartment was completely blown up in the explosion, and people were carrying bodies away. Bombay, India’s financial center, and New Delhi, the capital, were reportedly on high alert.

The Western Railway has suspended its suburban services soon after the blasts. Local telephone lines were jammed as panic-stricken commuters called their near and dear ones to alert them of the blasts. Commuters said there was no sign of the police even 30 minutes after the blasts.

The Mumbai blasts came just hours after suspected Islamist militants killed seven people, six of them tourists, in a series of grenade attacks in Indian Kashmir’s main city, Srinagar, which according to the police is the most concerted targeting of civilians in months.

The Mumbai police have cordoned off all railway stations on the Western line and strict frisking and checking was being carried out at the Central and Harbour sections of local train services.
Mumbai, a metropolis of about 17 million, has been hit by a series of bomb blasts in the past decade. More than 250 people died in a string of bomb explosions in Bombay in 1993 for which authorities blamed the city’s underworld criminal gangs.

More reports awaited.