Indian police are looking into "every possible hostile group" as they search for the culprits behind the triple bombing in the heart of Mumbai that killed at least 17 people and wounded 131 others.
The attacks were the worst terror strike in the country since the siege of Mumbai that killed 166 people 31 months ago, and government officials struggled to reassure Indians over their safety.
“There was no intelligence regarding a militant attack in Mumbai. That is not a failure of the intelligence agencies" Palaniappan Chidambaram proudly but enigmatically declared at a news conference in Mumbai following the overnight bombings which left 23 people critically injured.
“We know that the perpetrators have attacked and have worked in a very, very clandestine manner.
“Maybe it's a very small group, maybe they did not communicate with each other" Chidambaran stated adding that even though India was encircled by turbulent neighbiours, it was not pointing a finger at anyone at this stage.
The minister’s inference was to neighbouring nuclear rival Pakistan that has been blamed for almost all the earlier terrorist strikes in Mumbai and across India over the past two decades.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s bombings that ripped through three separate, crowded Mumbai commercial and residential neighborhoods within 15 minutes of each other during the busy, evening rush hour.
The bomb in south Mumbai’s Dadar area was secreted in a bus shelter, placed on the road in the Opera House business district teeming with diamond merchants and automobile spare part dealers a few miles away and hidden on a motorcycle in the adjoining jam-packed Zaveri or jewelry bazaar.
This was Zaveri bazaar’s third bombing; the earlier ones occurred in 1993 and in 2006 and other than killing and injuring people the powerful explosion in this area ripped off storefronts, shattered glass windows and shook the foundation of buildings in a wide area.
Chidambaram, however, speculated that the bombings could have been in retaliation to a series of recent arrests earlier this week of members of the indigenous Indian Mujahideen militant group that reportedly had links with the Pakistan-based Islamist Lashkar-e-Taeba (LeT or Army of the Pure) that is proscribed by the United Nations.
India claims the LeT was behind the three-day siege of Mumbai in November 2008 in which the city’s main train terminus, two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and café’s frequented by foreigners were attacked, killing 166 people.
India, however, is wary of even hinting at Pakistan’s involvement in the bombings as it comes weeks after bilateral peace talks resumed following a three year hiatus after the November 2008 strike on Mumbai.
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