Blasts in India financial capital.

Lets also keep in mind that india and pakistan have been to war before and neither conquered the other.

Well in 48 Pakistan invaded Kashmir and conquered more than 2/3rds of it before the ruler asked for India's assistance. India pushed Pakistan back.
In 65 Pakistan attacked India and India pushed them back.
In 71 East Pakistan attacked IAF bases which lead to the war in which India liberated Bangladesh.
In 99 Pakistan infilterated India with an objective to cut off Indian Kashmir from the rest of India. India pushed them backed.

India has never intended to destroy/conquer Pakistan. Even when talk about retaliatory action, it doesn't mean the same. But India can easily wage a war with Pakistan such that the military can never raise its head again and contest Indian agendas. India can easily put a puppet government in place (Indeed Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto wouldn't mind returning to a Pakistan with India's support.)
The point is the Pakistan army would regard this as the 'destruction of pakistan' Indeed it would mean their own destruction and hence they wouldn't hesitate to use nuclear weapons even though they know that that itself will mean the end of Pakistan.
See, lets get one thing straight. India will not use tactical theatre based nukes. If attacked, India's nuclear response will not be a measured one. It will be total. Pakistan will cease to exist.

Because a first strike can wipe out an entire nations nuke response force, cities, and conventional army. It makes sense for india to have their nukes only to use after being hit, because the pakistanis can't wipe them out. THe soviets could wipe the US out.

But the chinese can easily decimate India. Yet India does not follow a country specific N-policy. No-first use holds for all. I agree no first use has much to do with second strike capabilities but the only two countries which practice it (India and China) have foes which could easily wipe out their second strike capability.
No first use has more to do with the risk of triggering accidental Nuclear War.Infact it has much to do with preventing Nuclear war itself.
Remember India's nuclear policy is not Pakistan-centric. Infact its nuclear program has very little to do with Pakistan in the first place.

Why not? It makes perfect sense, from a military standpoint. Destablize india by supplying insurgents and militias, and prevent india from invading by threatening a nuke strike.

Because sometime down the line India will lose patience and along with that gain the ability to nullify Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
(ABM=S-400/PACIII/ArrowII/indigenous)
And then the game is up for Pakistan.

I tend to agree, with out knowing too much on the area though. The anti-indian militias are generally recognized as being supported by Pakistan (just like the Pakistanis essentialyl created the Taliban, etc).
BUT, the caveat is, the pakistani central government isn't a monolithic as it appears, and in addition to that there are powerful regional groups, like in waziristan, etc, that can act relatively independant of the central government.

Pakistan central govt. isn't monolithic but the army is. Pakistan is the Pak Army and the PAk army is Pakistan. Neither can exist w/o the other.Waziriztan is just a bunch of disgruntled Taliban escapees.

What is the general perception, I wonder, of Musharraf, amoung indians in india? Do people think that he is overseeing the projects to fund these groups, or that he is aware of other government BTOs that fund them, but unwilling to stop them, or that he is aware, but unable to stop them?
It has to be admited, he's a dictator, but he's not in control of the country, military, and intelligence services.

No he is not in 'complete' control and so the Kashmir trump he plays is ever so important to rein-in his detractors.
See, after the Taliban-betrayal, Musharraf faced a lot of turmoil from within his country and more importantly within his army and his intelligence services.
Now the general public opinion in the country can be swayed by a rally here and a statement there.But these disgruntled factions within the army and intelligence services pose the real threat to Musharraf's reign and obviously he knows that.

That is why he uses the Kashmir insurgency as a baby-pacifier to keep these more fanatic/religious portions of his forces satisfied. He uses the Kashmir insurgency as a regulating valve.
Turn it on when the heat from within gets too much, and turn it off when the heat from outside (west/India) gets too much.
This is the key to Musharraf's continued existence. Without it he cannot maintain his position as leader.

When it comes to Kashmir, they all see eye to eye. They HAVE to. Its their vote/popularity magnet. I may sound a little extreme when I say this, but the Kashmir Ideology is what has held Pakistan together through its in-fighting.
Not for nothing, but is kashmir, on its own, even worth it?
I mean, you obviously can't give in just because someone demands it, but, isn't kashmir populated mostly by muslims anyway? Is it all that important, on its own, to people throughout india?

Oh yes.. To each and everyone. Ask this question to any of the relatives of the victims who died as a result of terror attacks, and they'll give you the same answer. That is if they don't take offence to the question in the first place.Kashmir is a part of every Indian and I don't mean that metaphorically.

India can't do anything to stop it, other than to give up.

You're wrong on both counts. At least we Indians believe so..

Here's a personal account of one of the commuters who witnessed the blast first hand.Again extremely heartmoving; the way the city pulls together at the time of disaster. Gosh I'm proud!

Here is my story.

For those who came in late…I have started working in a tutoring firm at
Andheri. So it’s the night shift for me since the students are based in the
States. So there I was standing at Dadar station. Waiting for the Borivili
fast. She came bang on time. After the normal physical exercise routine (in
other cities they call this ‘boarding a train’…we Mumbaikars know
better

) I got in. The train started. Next stop Bandra…Lots of people
got in…some tried to get out

. After the usual round of expletives,
shouting and ‘chod do na yaar…are maramari mat karo’(forget about it,
man…don’t fight guys) the train started.

BOOM!

My first impression was that the over head wire that supplies current to
the train’s engine had snapped. There had been a flash like a yellow light
and then the lights went out. People started panicking. I don’t know why
but at such times I have the tendency to restore calm….a very close friend
had once called this habit…tere mein kida kam nahi hain..(can’t translate
this one) Neways, I roared out that people should calm down. Miraculously,
they did. Someone asked for the chain to be pulled but by then the motorman
had pushed the breaks. I jumped out of the train like the rest of the
commuters and saw that the first class compartment ahead of us had blown
up.

I moved towards the compartment. People had already started pulling others
out. Lots of guys had climbed the harbour line bridge that starts near
Bandra station. Slowly, the injured started emerging. The first guy whose
hand I held was merely stunned. Didn’t have any money left…wallet gone I
think. I gave him twenty bucks and he went his way. As I turned towards the
train, I saw a guy with lots of blood on his face…thankfully none of it was
his. He had temporarily lost his sense of hearing. Walked with him a lil
distance. Bandra station was a stones throw away from the blown-up
compartment. He recovered soon and some one took him to the station. I
turned and saw four guys carrying a fifth. The injuired man was alive but i
think, his hand would have to be amputated. A big guy was holding the
patient's right shoulder was shouting for some one to steady the man’s
head which had no support. With nothing else to do, I stepped in.

We took him to Bhaba hospital, Bandra. While the journey up till the auto
rickshaw was tough the journey till the hospital was an eye opener.
Carrying a 90 kilo man over the railway tracks, then over a 2 foot incline
near the tracks, then over a railing and through the jam caused by the
numerous autos which were ferrying patients to the hospital was tough even
when four of us were carrying him. We reached the main road outside the
station and got into the auto. The big saand (strong-guy) who had earlier
called me for help, literally dragged a fellow who had hired the auto out
and we got ourselves in. The big guy was sitting with the auto driver and I
along with two others was holding the injuired man on our laps.

Then the most beautiful thing happened. The guy to my right told the one to
my left to start reciting verses from the Koran and to blow on the man’s
head. I think it is some Muslim prayer. The big guy said,”Oh lord! Have
Mercy on this man!”. A few minutes later that injured man who was half
awake all this time started saying ‘shiv shiv shiv…om namah shivay …om
namah shivay.”

When I think back about that moment I smile to myself. We six of us in that
small auto heading towards the hospital had done it. We had defeated the
terrorists. Who can say we were stunned…we won guys. We won. We defeated
the terrorists’ plan by that simple act of helping a fellow INDIAN. We
didn’t have to invade Pak or kill Muslims. We had won. Of course we could
have lost if the 2 muslims had walked away from the man knowing that he was
Hindu but they didn’t. They continued working with me at the hospital for
nearly an hour transporting bodies to the morgue, taking patients to the
upper floors and providing a lil water to the other impromptu volunteers.
Going towards the office after all this was over, was probably the
stupidest thing I ever did but that gave me the chance to see the City
become one. Guys in designer tees, shorts etc. were flooding out of their
houses with water bottles. The rick I used was stopped in 4 places…two
places for others to get in ( the driver lied saying we were going to
parel.) and at two others, hands full of Parle-G biscuits were thrust in so
that we and the thousands of others like us who had been affected by the
Western railway system being shut down could have something to eat. The
over crowded buses were being given food and water at some signals with
people throwing biscuit packets into the bus…even good old Bourbon
biscuit…yummy

All in all a lot happened yesterday but my city didn’t budge. We have been
hit before, we have been hit yesterday and we will continue to get
attacked. The only thing to do is to come together. Together as One. For
that is what the terrorists don’t want to see. They don’t realise that the
more they attack us, the closer we become. We can’t let ourselves go down
so we can’t give up.

You may think what I did was pretty heroic…it was may be…but I like so many
others wouldn’t like to be called heroes. It feels very uncomfortable. If
you want to give us a name just call us Mumbaikars. That name is
all-inclusive.

The really surprising bit is the part about how people were just giving out food to commuters on alternate routes

[edit on 13-7-2006 by Daedalus3]

Originally posted by Daedalus3

The really surprising bit is the part about how people were just giving out food to commuters on alternate routes

[edit on 13-7-2006 by Daedalus3]

This was the case last year too during the 26/7 deluge. I myself gave a ride to 3 people in the night. They dint have any way to get home, as trains were not running as yet and buses were filled beyond capacity, as i had space in my car.

But come to think of it such scenes would be witnessed in most Indian Cities, God forbid if such a situation arises. Its just that Bombay has had to take the brunt of too many disasters in the recent past and hence it is has been in the limelight in a way

India says Pakistan Intelligence Service behind train bombings
www.hindustantimes.com...

Fox anchors are saying it has all the marks of being an al-qaida attack

Fox News said that? No way! lol (Sorry just couldn't help myself.)

Why is eleven & seven so important to these elite bastards who are fabricating terrorist attacks?

You need to investigate who is really behind the Terrorism.

9/11
11/3
7/7
11/7

Don't forget the Bali Bombings happened a day, a month and a year after 9/11.

These Arab Terrorists sure are obsessed with dates, who would of guessed! Especially considering that I believe some of these attacks aren't even linked to the same so called terrorist organisation.

Not really..
Those reports are of the 'jumping-the-gun' type.

H ere's a summary of the situation uptill now.

Though one must note that peace talks between India and Pakistan have been postponed as a direct reaction to the blasts.

The powerful explosive RDX was used in the Mumbai train bombings which left nearly 180 dead, police have said.
Ammonium nitrate was also used in the series of attacks six days ago, the head of the anti-terrorist squad, K P Raghuvanshi, told journalists.

Fragments of timer devices have also been found, scientific reports say. No significant arrests have been made.

India has accused militants based in Pakistan for helping in the attacks but Pakistan has rejected the suggestion.
continues

BBC


sanc

Originally posted by sanctum
The powerful explosive RDX was used in the Mumbai train bombings

Latest news reveal that RDX was not used...officials have not been able to understand yet what was used ....
Indian officials have made a lot of Contradictory comments so far .....I think its better not to give them too much importance

On the other hand top Indian politicians have started playing Politics with the bomb blast ...

The BJP accused the Muslims and try their best to create a communal atmosphere.

On the other hand the Samajbadi Party accuses Govt for arresting muslims as suspected terrorists....and thus tries their best to ensure some muslim votes in the upcomming election .

Congress tells both of the above party are communal only they are genuine ....and thus the struggle for attracting vote bank continues ...no Indian politician seems to be really concerned about the bomb blasts ...all seemed to be concerned about their own vote banks.... A shame to humanity.

[edit on 18-7-2006 by prelude]

Well of course they are not going to say RDX was used. Because that would reveal more of who was REALLY behind the attacks.

I mean they did the same with the London Bombings.

First it was military, then it was home made, then it was made by some explosive expert (or something like that) in Egypt (which later showed to have no ties to Al-CIA-duh.)