170 killed in Mumbai blasts; terrorists strike in Srinagar too

Mumbai/Srinagar, July 11 (UNI) In coordinated operations, terrorists today carried out audacious attacks in the country's commercial capital, triggering serial blasts in local trains at 7 places, killing over 170 people and injuring over 400, and grenade attacks in Srinagar targetting tourists.

In a ghastly reminder of the bloody 1993 post-Ayodhya explosions in the megapolis, more than 170 people were killed and more than 400 injured, many of them seriously, as a series of powerful blasts ripped through local trains at seven places within the space of quarter of an hour.

Addressing a press conference after chairing an emergency cabinet meeting late tonight, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said that 147 persons were killed and 439 injured in the seven powerful bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai's suburban western railway services during the evening peak hours.

However, according to the sources in the Director General of Police (DGP) office, more than 460 people were injured and are being treated at the city's various hospitals like KEM, Bhabha, Bhagwati, Cooper, Hinduja and other private hospitals, while the number of dead had reached 171.

The worst-ever mayhem in Mumbai after 1993 came hours after terrorists in an upsurge of violence, killed at least eight people, six of them tourists from West Bengal and wounded 37 in a series of grenade blasts in the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. The high-intensity blasts in Mumbai ripped through suburban trains during peak hours, with the first occurring at 1820 hrs at Matunga, followed by seven more explosions within the next ten minutes at Mahim, Bandra, Khar, Jogeshwari, Borivali (twice) and Mira Road.

The trains were either on the platforms of the railway stations or between the stations when the explosions occurred.

In what certainly was a well-planned terrorist operation, the blasts occurred when the trains were packed to capacity with office-goers returning home.

Police said the blasts were so powerful that the roof of the Mahim Railway Station was blown to pieces.

Mangled remains of the dead were strewn all over the areas where the blasts occurred, while blood stains were visible on the tracks.

The injured were rushed to various hospitals in the metropolis.

Horror and panic prevailed as reports of serial bomb blasts spread. More than a million commuters travel between Churchgate and Virar during peak rush hours in the morning and evening.

Panic-striken people jumped off the trains, seriously injuring themselves, in a bid to save themselves. In addition, a complete failure in communication networks compounded the problem as commuters could not contact their relatives to give information about their condition or whereabouts. Residents living on either sides of the railway lines in slums or housing societies rushed to help of the stranded passengers on the tracks and even helped in removing the injured and the dead to nearby hospitals.

Samples from the blast sites are being collected for intensive forensic investigations. The Maharashtra Government has asked the Central Forensic Laboratory (CFL) at Kalina here to give the results of the tests early as possible.

A high alert was sounded across the country soon after the blasts as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Singh convened a high-level meeting with Home Minister Shivraj Patil and top officials to review the situation arising from the explosions in Mumbai as well as the terrorist violence in Srinagar earlier in the day.

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, along with Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad arrived in Mumbai late tonight to review the situation.

They also meet the injured, admitted in various hospitals.

More than a million people travel daily on the suburban trains, considered the lifeline of Mumbai.

Meanwhile, the train services, suspended after the blasts, have partially resumed, Western Railway officials said.

Eds: Pick up suitably from earlier series.

UNI Team VD RAI0217