Police probe Mumbai explosions

MUMBAI, India - There are no immediate suspects in the triple bombing that killed 17 people in India's financial capital and the attack came without warning, the country's top security official said on Thursday, while shellshocked residents lambasted the government for the apparent intelligence breakdown.

The bombings, which shook three separate neighborhoods within minutes of each other during Wednesday's busy evening rush hour, were the country's worst terror strike since the siege of Mumbai that killed 166 people in late 2008.

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said Indian intelligence had not received any warnings of a possible attack on Mumbai before the latest blasts.

"Whoever has perpetrated this attack has worked in a very, very clandestine manner," he said at a news conference after an emergency security meeting.

He said police were looking into "every possible hostile group" in their search for the culprits.

That did little to reassure residents who questioned how the attack could happen despite massive security measures taken in recent years.

"After the 2008 blast and all the media hype (about safety) we thought we were safe," said Anita Ramaswami, a 33-year-old accountant. "But things still are the same, and people in Mumbai continue to feel vulnerable."

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, and Indian officials have so far refused to speculate who might be behind the attack.

"We are not pointing a finger at this stage," Chidambaram said. "We have to look at every possible hostile group and find out whether they are behind the blast."

A steady drizzle on Thursday washed away bloodstains and threatened evidence at the site of the attacks, which ripped off storefronts, shredded a bus stop and left bodies strewn in the dirt of Mumbai's crowded neighborhoods and market. Investigators covered the blast sites with plastic sheets to protect the evidence.

The bomb in the Dadar area in central Mumbai was placed on a bus shelter; in the Opera House business district in southern Mumbai it was placed on the road; in the Jhaveri Bazaar jewelry market a few kilometers away it was on a motorcycle, Chidambaram said.

The bombs were made of ammonium nitrate and were not remotely triggered, he said. Police were gathering evidence about the triggering or timing mechanism that set off the bombs and what types of containers they were in, Chidambaram said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China was "shocked by the heavy casualties and losses caused by the blasts", as China joined the world in expressing horror at the attack. "The Chinese government strongly condemns the attack, and we express our sincere sympathy to the Indian government and people," he added.

"We are willing to work together with the international community, including India, to combat terrorism."

Nations including the US, Australia, Indonesia, South Korea and France strongly condemned the attacks.

AP-AFP-Xinhua

(China Daily 07/15/2011 page12)