I had written this article long time back during the Mumbai train bombings of 11 July 2006, when a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban railway in Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the nation's financial capital. The bombs were set off in pressure cooker on trains plying the Western lines of the Suburban Railway network. 209 people were killed and over 700 were injured(Information from Wikipedia). I tried to find the original piece of my writing as my writing style has changed over the course of time but I could not find it so I decided to narrate the story again. It was 14th July 2006, three days after the sad event and everyone close to me had gathered at my house, before I was suppose to leave to meet one of my close friends, to support him in this sad times. My brother said, "I was lucky as my office shifted only a week ago to a new location. It was the same first class compartment, which was shattered into pieces."
He continued, "I was suppose to travel in the same compartment and I knew many people over there. I am not sure how many of them are still alive." My best friend joined in and said, "My father use to travel in the same train everyday and he still travels in the same coach. He was lucky that day to have missed the train by a few seconds. He cursed his boss for giving him extra work right when he was about to leave but he still thanks his boss for saving his life. My father says that he could not see any familiar faces in the train. He use to see a young couple who looked like they were just about to get married and use to smile at him everyday. They use to get down only a few stops after my father got into the train but even in that short duration they never forgot to return a smile. My father said he remembered; the first time he saw them, very vividly. Being young, my father had thought they are just girl friend and boy friend and my father being traditional did not like it all. Somehow, the young girl realized why he had turned his face away and raised her hand to show my father her engagement ring. From that day for past three months they smiled at him everyday. Once when my father did not show up, they confronted him and said, "We were really worried about you." My father replied, "I had gone out to Kerala for a week." The young boy replied, "Next time if you go at least tell us so we do not have to worry." The girl said, "Wow, Kerala. We have a wishlist to travel across the world together. Kerala, Kashmir, Leh Ladakh are some of the places in India that we have in our wishlist." I could see tears in my father's eyes when he narrated this story to me. He missed them a lot and said, "They were very young to die and very happy with each other. Why did not god take life of people who are miserable and willing to die? Why did not he kill me instead? I am old and lived my life to the fullest. I have seen everything in life but they had so many things to do together. They had their wishlist to complete. Now, who would live that life for them." I had listened enough and just blasted out in anger that was filling in me, "Fuck those terrorist who kill innocent people. What did they gain killing so many innocent people who they have never met before. Who had nothing to do with politics or in anyway affect them. This terrorist do not have the rights to decide if I die or live by pressing just a button. My life is way more precious then that." Anyway, after a good round of discussion, which might be a blog in itself I left to meet my friend. It was my first day in local trains after the blast and I still do remember some things that happened that day. I sat nearby an old guy who looked at everyone in suspicion as if every other person is a suspect. I placed my bag in the baggage area of the local train as shown below:
A man with thick mustache was sitting opposite to me and was feeling discomfort when the old man sitting beside me started to stare at him. The man with thick mustache said, "What is wrong with you old man?" Of course his tone in Hindi was way funnier to hear. The old man with no teeth said, "You do not scare me. I have lived for eighty years now. Do you think I am scared of dying and terrorist like you scare me." Wow, I knew I was in for some good action. The thick mustache guy replied, "Do I look like a terrorist to you?" The old man replied, "All this terrorist are well educated and look way more handsome then you but I still have a feeling you can be one of them." Now everyone in the coach turned their head to the conversation. Everyone taking sides but most of them wanted the old man to win. Even me. It is just the way he pronounced words so slowly almost making the other person wait for his response. The guy with a thick mustache replied, "Do you think If I was the terrorist, I would have shown up today just after the bombing." The old man moving his hand left to right and making weird noises said, "No no. Do you think I am a fool and I do not understand what is happening? After the crime, criminal always returns to the crime scene and checks whether someone doubts him or not. I caught you red handed now." We all were just laughing while the man with mustache was really having a hard time to keep his cool. He said, "Fine, I am the terrorist. Now what?" I could see a change in his attitude and now almost accepting he was a terrorist. He continued, "I am going to get down in the next station after that if anyone travels in this train, it is in his own risk." I am pretty sure he was just kidding but believe me everyone was looking around as if to say, "Do we really need to get down." The old man was pleading with everyone now, "Do not let this man get down. Stop him." It was his pronunciation, which was so funny that no one actually took him seriously. The old man continued, "Fine, if you guys do not want to catch him then don't but at least give him his bag." Now the man with mustache turned back and said, "Can someone give me my bag? It is black and blue in color." The old man replied, "No, first check his bag. There might be something you will find in it as a proof." A man with specs and in his late forties, who was holding bag, looked suspicious and was thinking to open his bag. The man with thick mustache replied, "Why not? But then I am not responsible for what happens next." The man with spectacle just passes the bag forward to another guy and like a Mexican wave it reaches the man with a mustache. Everyone in the train clears his path and he gets down very easily. After getting down he replied for all to listen, "This is the first time anyone else has reminded me of my bag and taken so much care of me in the local train that I would surely come here everyday." Everyone shouted back, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO". I had a good laugh and so did everyone else. It is not that we did not remorse for the ones who died and were not angered by the whole incident but it was just that we were not scared of it. Mumbai never stops or sleeps and we proved it again. A bomb blast would not stop us from travelling or doing our day to day job, neither would it bring our morale down but I assure you we would fight against these criminals and hopefully, our Mumbai police would hunt them down and make them pay.
Remember, this incident took place in 2006, ten years after that a lot of them are convicted.
(Below information from Wikipedia)
Involvement of Indian Mujahidee
On 27 February 2009, Sadiq Sheikh, an arrested leader of the Indian Mujahideen confessed to his alleged role in the bombings in a news channel broadcast. He claimed to have engineered the pressure cooker bombs with his associates in a flat in central Mumbai. If verified, these allegations could invalidate the previous claims by the ATS that the ISI or the SIMI were involved. Sadiq states in his confession, ‘‘All five of us arranged local first class train passes beforehand. We also had the local train time table with us so that we could choose a train as per our convenience. We purchased bags and pressure cookers in Bombay.’’ He also claimed to have misled investigators by blaming the attacks on the Al-Qaeda. On 6 April 2013, IM co-founder Sadiq Sheikh declared hostile witness by defence advocates.
Convictions
In September 2015, 12 people were convicted in this case. On 30 September 2015, a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court sentenced to death Faisal Sheikh, Asif Khan, Kamal Ansari, Ehtesham Sidduqui and Naveed Khan who planted the bombs in various trains.The other seven convicts—Mohammed Sajid Ansari, who prepared the electrical circuits for the bombs, Mohammed Ali, who provided his Govandi residence to make the bombs, Dr Tanveer Ansari, one of the conspirators, and Majid Shafi, Muzzammil Shaikh, Sohail Shaikh and Zamir Shaikh who provided logistical support – were sentenced to life.
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