Cliches begin to resonate with truth; it's that moment in Mumbai's history of terror strikes. Never has the term Maximum City fitted so perfectly—11 terror attacks in 18 years, 40 different locations, 704 lives lost, 2,289 wounded, including the 18 dead (unofficial figures in the media put the fatalities at 21) and 131 injured on the evening of Wednesday, July 13, 2011, when terror struck again, at Zaveri Bazaar, Opera House and Dadar. No other metro in India has seen so much terror or rebounded to the numbing routine of daily life.
Dotted With Blood
Since 1993, over a period of 18 years, Bombay has seen terror attacks in 40 locations, some of which, like Zaveri Bazaar and Ghatkopar, have seen multiple attacks.
Deep in the heart of many a Mumbaikar is a strange mix of emotions—anger, bitterness, helplessness, fear, vulnerability and a question: why is my city attacked over and over again? "I know it's logical to attack Mumbai because the arteries of the country run through it; there is an immediate, global reaction, but the logic doesn't stop us from being afraid," says Rajit Kapoor, a well-known Mumbai-based actor. The fear that the Mumbaikar is resigned to is now palpable, in the eyes of those seven million who board suburban local trains that could be moving bombs. In the gait of those four million who shuffle to bus stops that could be potential targets. Mumbai is indeed a scarred city.
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"We are sitting ducks, angry at being hit, but sitting ducks all the same," laments Jayesh Labhdi, a diamond merchant who worked at Opera House, the nerve centre of diamond trade, for nearly two decades. That sense of resignation, shocking as it may sound, comes from watching governments, both at the Centre and the state, that do not seem to have worked out firm counter-terrorism strategies and followed them through since the city was first hit by 13 serial blasts on March 12, 1993. "From then on, the excuses trotted out after an attack have been sickeningly identical: densely populated city, offers easy anonymity, cannot be policed in every corner, etc," lambasts Ashoke Pandit, filmmaker and activist.
 "By targeting Mumbai, the terrorists aim to create divides between its diverse peoples and populations." Teesta Setalvad, Anti-communalism activist |  "Mumbai is vulnerable 24/7 because the city is always awake. There isn't a deserted or quiet spot anywhere." Rajit Kapoor, Actor | |
 "There is an obvious pattern to the attacks. Our security agencies have to pay more attention to the dates." Bose Krishnamachari, Artist |  "The object behind a terror attack is to create a media blitz. The media is thus an associate of global terror."Kumar Ketkar, Editor, Maharashtra Times | |
 "The only real solution to terrorism is addressing communal divisions over the long term. Not AK-47s for cops." Anand Patwardhan, Filmmaker |  "Chaos rules in Mumbai. Nobody is in charge. Maybe Obama has a solution, because our netas sure as hell don't." Shobhaa De, Writer | |
As the first shock of Wednesday's attack wore off, a blogger evocatively likened Mumbai to a "battered wife—beaten, bruised, raped, choking on her own vomit and blood, but coping the only way she knows how—getting up to each new sunrise to serve a drunken bastard of a husband, thinking that is the fate she must fulfil". Says Dr Ajit Ranade, chief economist of the Aditya Birla group and co-founder of the Association for Democratic Reforms, "There was immense anger and a will to change things in the wake of 26/11. What happened in recent history shows we haven't learned any lesson."
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The Sonis are equally inconsolable; they lost one of their younger generation. Pankaj Soni, 21, worked with his father and uncle in the family jewellery store at Lamington Road, near Opera House. He had stepped out for a quick evening snack when the IED went off. Uncle Ramesh found his body at GT Hospital. "What was his crime," screams Ramesh, unable to come to terms with the loss. "He had gone out to eat, that's all. Isn't it safe in this city to go out for a plate of pani puri?"
Shattered world Friends and family console young Vipin Soni whose brother Pankaj was killed in the Zaveri Bazaar explosion
In Zaveri Bazaar, the bullion and diamond trading hub nearby, Rajendrabhai Bhakta says he's among the most unfortunate ones to have seen all the three blasts—in 1993, 2003 and the ones this Wednesday. "I work in Zaveri Bazaar, I live here. This is my world and it's shattered over and over again," he says, shuddering at the thought of the number of body parts of victims he has helped pick up after every attack. Adds shopowner Sameer Shah: "This blast was so powerful that several ground-plus-one storey buildings shook, the diamonds I was weighing were strewn all over."
The IED that went off at the Dadar bus stop, adjacent to Antonio D'Silva school that had emptied out just 15 minutes earlier, was the second one in the area after Plaza Cinema was hit in 1993. Even as policemen tried to cordon off the area, Sanjay Jadhav, a resident of Dharavi, walked up and down asking passersby if they had seen an old woman injured or taken to a hospital. Jadhav was searching for his mother Bhimabai, a fruit vendor whose "permanent parking spot" was next door to the bus stop. "She didn't stop working even though I told her so many times," says Jadhav. "I'm looking for her all over, no hospital seems to have her name on the list."
Unread Graffiti outside a crematorium after the '08 strikes
There are other heart-wrenching stories: of a brother breaking down on hearing of his brother's death, asking, "how do I tell this to his 6-year-old son?"; of aged parents unable to accept the death of their 23-year-old son who was married a month back; of a 21-year-old young man from Raigad who came to Mumbai with dreams in his eyes because his older brother fixed him a job at Panchratna, near Opera House, and must now take his brother's body back home. Statistics, as always, do not convey individual grief.
Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who rushed to Mumbai Wednesday midnight and surveyed the three sites, stated "this was a coordinated attack by terrorists". It set the tone for the investigation. Teams of the National Security Guard, National Investigative Agency and experts from the Central Forensic Science Lab flew into Mumbai through the night and Thursday. Nearly 16 hours after the blasts, the investigators concluded that "ammonium nitrate-based explosives and timer devices were used" to trigger off the bombs.
Cut To Jul 13, 2001 Zaveri Bazaar is battered again. (Photograph by Apoorva Salkade)
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Mute Solace PM Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi meet an injured youth at Saifee Hospital
By Thursday noon, 12 teams had been formed, drawn from the Crime Branch and the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), to be assisted by visiting NIA teams. ATS chief Rakesh Maria appealed to Mumbaikars "to have faith in the Mumbai police because it has identified every single accused in every case so far in Mumbai". Few took him seriously, given the Mumbai police track record on such cases: in the 2002 Mumbai Central case, a MCOCA judge is yet to be appointed; in the 2002 Ghatkopar case, all eight accused were acquitted recently; in the 2003 Zaveri Bazaar and Gateway of India blast cases, a pota court sentenced LeT operatives to death but appeals are pending in the Bombay High Court. As for the July 2006 train blasts case, the MCOCA court trial was stalled by the accused twice before it finally got under way through an apex court order last year. In most of these blasts cases, police have relied largely on confessions of the accused. The current investigation will have another hurdle: the oneupmanship game currently on between the Crime Branch and the ATS.
Cruel End Mahant Mandal performing the last rites of his brother Kishan. (Photograph by AFP, From Outlook, July 25, 2011)
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Mumbaikars believe these are matters of detail; such theories and investigations have yielded information in the past but have been of little use in neutralising the next possible attack. "I don't believe Chidambaram when he says there was no prior intelligence," says Jayant Jain, who works near Opera House. "I know Mumbai cops caught two IM operative on July 6. Weren't they questioned, wasn't there anything from them, wasn't it intelligence?"
Impotent rage is all the Mumbaikar can feel right now. All he's expecting is minimum concern for the Maximum City. Even that seems to be asking for too much.
By Smruti Koppikar with Smita Mitra in Mumbai and Chandrani Banerjee in Delhi
| ALSO IN THIS STORY |
MUMBAI BLASTS Crisis control has improved, but not by much |
MUMBAI BLASTS Bull's-eye painted on Mumbai's diamond hub |
AUTHORS: SMRUTI KOPPIKAR
TAGS: TERROR IN INDIA | TERROR IN MUMBAI | BLASTS
SECTION: NATIONAL
SUBSECTION: COVER STORIES
PLACES: MUMBAI
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JUL 20, 2011 05:44 PM 40 | Not that I'm a big fan of Narendra Modi, but if it takes him to end the scourge of terrorism and plunder of India, I say bring him on! |
JUL 20, 2011 05:41 PM 39 | As long as we have inept politicians heading us and an even more inept population that continues to elect the very same thugs for narrow political considerations (that he/she would benefit their constituency, never mind even if it is at the expense of others), we deserve everything that comes our way: corruption, bad governance, terrorism. And among the worst of the lot is the Congress. Since the party took over, all we've heard of is inflation, scams, loot and plunder. How long will it be before we open our eyes? |
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JUL 20, 2011 01:19 AM 37 | "All he's expecting is minimum concern for the Maximum City. Even that .. too much." So much has been said and written on this subject of recurring acts of terrorism and why they happens and who is to blame and how this can be controlled, even eliminated(?), and so forth. Ultimately we find ourselves at square one every time the next bomb goes off. 18 blasts in 18 years must be some sort of a record for a city in a non-war zone? Actually the essence of it is quite simple and it is summed-up in 2 words from the article above: 'MINIMUM CONCERN'. That is the 'default mode' of our rulers. Occasionally a manual override forces them to at least SHOW some concern .. and then revert to default-mode. Examples from every walk of life would fill volumes. But why are we surprised, disgusted or angered? After all, 'Minimum Concern' is the default-mode of most of us Indians. We spit, shit and urinate at will, NOT because we are 'un-hygeinic', but because we have minimum concern for the guy who might step in it. We jump traffic lights, cut lanes, go wrong way on one-way streets and park at will, NOT because we are stupid or ignorant about the danger and inconvenience to others, but because we have minimum concern for others. (My brother-in-law once shouted at a driver going the wrong way 'Kyaa karta hai? Yeh One-Way raasta hai!' Pat came the reply'Haa, maalum hai. Aaap one way jaa rahey ho, main one way jaa rahaa hoon!'. A sense of humour, we don't lack!). We throw garbage and dirt and effluent into any open or public space - including into our 'holy' rivers, lakes and mountain tops, NOT because we cannot see how we are befouling our own home, but because we have minimum concern for anything that is not immediately ours. We push to the front of queues - IF we even bother to make a queue - and push others aside going in and out of doors in crowded places, NOT because we are a nasty lot - but because we have minimum concern for anyone else's rights. And so on, and so forth ... One's personal first hand experiences alone could fill a book. If you draw on the experiences of others, you could fill a book-shelf! So the question is - why do we so sanctimoniously demand that the ONLY people who MUST demonstrate GREAT CONCERN for others, should be the politicians - who WE elect?? |
JUL 19, 2011 07:30 PM 36 | 9/11- Perhaps the biggest Terrorist attack ever.... U won't find pics of victim who have suffered lying in pool of blood or whatsoever.... But whenever there is any TERROR attack In INDIA... Our Media usually takes Pics of Victim in most Gory conditions, lying in pool of blood etc... Can't our MEDIA HOUSES be BIT HUMANE and Responsible.... SHAME on U MEDIA GUYS... And OUTLOOK being one of the most responsible journals in INDIA should'nt have fallen to TERRORIST agenda to GLORIFY TERROR.... |
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