Widespread condemnation of Mumbai blast

New Delhi, July 13 (UNI) Hundreds of people rallied in the capital today to protest terrorist violence.

The CPI(M)-affiliated All India Democratic Women's Association organised a march from Mandi House to Parliament Street police station where senior leaders addressed a meeting, called to condemn the bomb blasts in Srinagar and Mumbai.

Scores of activists of the All India Anti-Terrorist Front and the Hindu Manch also staged demonstrations at Jantar Mantar to protest the blasts.

While AIDWA leaders used the occasion to criticise the BJP, saying it was trying to make political capital out of the tragedy, the Hindu Manch took the Government to task for repeatedly failing to protect innocent civilians from terrorists.

The state unit of the Bharatiya Janshakti party of Uma Bharti has planned a protest march to the High Commission of Pakistan tomorrow. The All India Shia Sunni Front also would stage a demonstration tomorrow.

Meanwhile, an association of freedom fighters and the Jamia Teachers Association have strongly condemned the terrorists attack in Mumbai and expressed heartfelt sympathies to the victims' families.

''Such a cowardly act of a handful of mindless people will not be able to shatter our spirit of unity and the progress of our belived country,'' the Jamia Teachers' Association said demanding that the culprits be identified and brought to book at the earliest.

The All India Freedom Fighters Organisation (AIFFO) held a meeting and condemned the Mumbai blasts as a 'black day in the history of India'', an AIFFO spokesman said.

Describing the terrorist actions in Mumbai and Srinagar as an attack on the democratic way of life, they expressed the desire to fight the menace.

'' Freedom fighters are apalled by the brutal and callous bombings as such acts serve only to reaffirm that terrorism constitutes one of the most serious threats to our country after the British era,'' he quoted freedom fighter Sardar Inderjit Singh as saying.

The AIFFO condemned the intelligence agencies for their failure and demanded a through probe to pin-point officials behind the failure.

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