3 bombings kill 21, wound 141 in India

Associated Press

MUMBAI, India

Three coordinated bombings tore through the heart of India’s busy financial capital during rush hour Wednesday, killing 21 people and wounding 141 in the worst terrorist attack in the country since the 2008 Mumbai siege.

Bloody bodies were strewn in the dirt of Mumbai’s crowded neighborhoods and markets. Doors were ripped off storefronts, motorcycles were charred and a bus stop was shredded. After the blasts in three separate neighborhoods, police set up checkpoints and were put on high alert.

The bombings came just months after peace talks resumed between India and Pakistan, which New Delhi has blamed for past attacks.

Arup Patnaik, a police officer, said the attackers used improvised explosive devices in the attack, hidden in an umbrella in the Jhaveri Bazaar jewelry market and kept in a car in the business district of Opera House.

The third blast in Dadar area was caused by an explosive device concealed in an electric meter at a bus stop, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts and appealed to the people of Mumbai “to remain calm and show a united face.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Indian officials have accused Pakistan’s powerful spy agency of helping coordinate and fund earlier attacks, including the Mumbai siege, which killed 166 people over three days. Peace talks between the countries were suspended after the siege and resumed only recently.

Pakistan’s government expressed distress about the loss of lives and injuries soon after Wednesday’s blasts were reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama also condemned the “outrageous attacks.” “The American people will stand with the Indian people in times of trial, and we will offer support to India’s efforts to bring the perpetrators of these terrible crimes to justice,” he said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she will keep her plans to visit India next week. “Standing with India “is more important than ever,” she said.

The bombings began with an explosion that ripped through the famed Jhaveri Bazaar jewelry market at 6:54 p.m. A minute later, a blast hit the busy business district of Opera House, several miles away in southern Mumbai. At 7:05 p.m., the third bomb exploded in the crowded neighborhood of Dadar in Mumbai, according to police.

The government said the blasts killed 21 people and wounded 141 others.