With the biggest Hindu festival of Diwali approaching, Indians predictably are thronging the market place to shop for food, new clothes and firecrackers. Today, Saturday evening in India, was a busy shopping day before the impending holidays. Three (four by some reports) simultaneous explosions occured in major shopping areas in New Delhi , killing at least 50 people. No one has claimed responsibility and no suspect is in custody. But the usual suspects – Pakistani militants involved in the Kashmir conflict or their local supporters are believed to be behind the blasts. The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh has urged calm (what else?). If indeed the perpetrators are Islamic terrorists who were hoping to kill only Hindu Indians, they may have miscalculated. Now is also a special time for Muslims, whose biggest festival, Eid is around the corner and many Muslims who go out to eat or shop for food at the end of the Ramadan fast, were also probably shopping at the same places. But who said that the killers would care about targets – Hindu or Muslim ? The point is to rattle nerves. A terrible day for the dead, injured and their families – just another day at the office for terrorists.
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Accidental Blogger 
3 responses to “Explosions In New Delhi”
without regard for religion? maybe and maybe not. The blasts occurred at 5:30-6:00pm, when muslims would be at iftaar — the evening prayer and the breaking of the daily fast. the time of day they’re least likely to be in the markets.
if you wanted to maximize impact irrespective of religion, you would time them for say 7pm.
on the contrary, if you wanted to target muslims in particular, you would do them in the days after diwali but before eid.
so i’m not sure these blasts were religion-neutral.
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Thanks for your comments – straight from the belly of the beast. Hope to utilize your insight on south Asian and other matters in future discussions.
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It’s interesting how none of the media — whether Indian or Western — have highlighted the point about timing, even though everyone on the street is whispering this. On the contrary, media reports tend to go out of their way to say that the blasts occurred in areas frequented by both Hindu and Muslim shoppers.
The question is, it better to just pretend that there’s nothing communal about these attacks and hope that people will buy it?
Or is it better to come out clean, and also tackle head-on the issue of why this is no justification for a “Hindu backlash”.
The media might just be playing into the hands of communal forces by taking the former approach.
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