Women hunted in Bombay bombers search

India today blamed Islamic militant groups for twin car bombings in Bombay which killed 50 people and left 154 wounded in the worst terrorist attack in a decade in the country’s financial heart.

The bombs planted in two taxis exploded minutes apart on Monday, ripping through a crowded jewellery market and in front of a colonial-era tourist attraction, the Gateway of India.

Police said they were focusing their investigation on Muslim militants and were interrogating several people, including the driver of the taxi that exploded at the Gateway of India.

The Indian Express newspaper said police are hunting two women who hired the taxi to go to the Gateway.

They got out of the taxi, purportedly for lunch, leaving a bag inside. The driver also was strolling outside when the car blew up, the Express said.

The driver of the second cab at the Zaveri Bazaar died in the explosion.

At least five other explosions in Bombay in the last six months have been blamed on the pro-Pakistan Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group and its ally, the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, a militant group outlawed in 2001.

“The people responsible before appear to be the people responsible now,” Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said in Bombay, after inspecting damage caused by the bombings.

He said Lashkar-e-Tayyaba’s involvement “raises doubts about our neighbour,” a reference to India’s nuclear rival, Pakistan.

Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is one of more than a dozen Islamic rebel groups that has been fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir since 1989, seeking independence for the Himalayan province or its merger with Muslim-majority Pakistan. India has often accused Pakistan of aiding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and of sponsoring cross-border terrorism, allegations that Islamabad denies. Pakistan also banned the group last year.

Advani said Pakistan’s “war of terrorism” was directed not just against select areas like Jammu and Kashmir or Punjab or New Delhi but against the entire country.

“There is an attempt to destabilise the whole of India,” Advani said.

Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi also seemed to blame Pakistan. “There are terrorists coming from outside,” she said.

Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed dismissed Advani’s remarks as “baseless allegations against Pakistan.”

“Pakistan has never supported terrorism in India. We are against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and this is the basic principle of our foreign policy,” Ahmed said in Islamabad.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Terrorist attacks in the past have triggered sectarian violence, but such fears eased as daybreak brought the familiar bustle to the streets of Bombay, a city of 16 million.

Worshippers thronged the popular Siddhi Vinayak temple as part of Hindu festivities that will climax on Sunday to honour the elephant god Ganesh.

The attacks seemed aimed more at the city itself than any particular religious or ethnic group and failed to arouse communal passions, instead uniting Muslims and Hindus in their grief.

In Zaveri Bazaar, the jewellery market, many shops are owned by Hindus but many of its artisans are Muslims. The Gateway of India arch, built by the British to mark a royal visit, is a popular lunchtime spot for both Muslims and Hindus.

“Even after the blasts, both Hindus and Muslims were together in the rescue,” said Sohail Rokadia, a Muslim community leader and businessman. “If the aim was to create a distance between the two communities, the perpetrators have failed.”

Women wailed as the body of 19-year-old tourist guide Krishna Thakur, wrapped in a white shroud and marigold flowers, was taken away for cremation. Mourners included the residents of The Anchorage, an orphanage that Thakur frequently visited.

A few miles) away at a Muslim burial ground, mourners prayed as the bodies of Sadique Ahmad, 42, and his nephew, Mohammed Sohail Latif Wadiwala, 21, were lowered into their graves.

A group of 200 Muslims waving the national flag and peace banners marched in Bombay to condemn the attack.

Bombay’s stock market surged today to a 30 month closing high, wiping out Monday’s losses.

Many Bombay residents said the bombers seemed intent on triggering strife between India’s two largest religious groups, and they recalled the horror of the last large-scale attack in the city – serial blasts in March 1993 that killed more than 250 people.

The UN, China, the US, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand joined Pakistan in condemning Monday’s attacks.

Advani acknowledged Pakistan’s gesture.

“Though Pakistan has condemned the attacks they should consider our demand to hand over 20 criminals. First they should do this,” he said, referring to a list of suspected terrorists that India says are sheltering in Pakistan.