Dozens are dead and wounded:
All metropolitan areas in India have been put on high alert.
Several media outlets and the country’s Intelligence Bureau received an e-mail, purportedly from the Muslim militant group Indian Mujahedeen, warning about a possible attack. The group has claimed responsibility for two similar attacks in the past nine months in northern India.
Most of the explosions were in eastern Ahmedabad and within a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) radius, according to CNN’s sister network CNN-IBN.
One explosion was at a bus stop, others at a railway station and on a bus. Another bomb went off under a car at a hospital where injured people were being taken, the network said.
Video footage from the scene of one explosion showed charred and twisted bicycles and motorcycles lying on the street as a crowd milled around. At least one of the bombs was on a bicycle, authorities said.
The blasts began about 6:30 p.m. and lasted until about 7:40 p.m., according to CNN-IBN.
The synchronized low-intensity attacks are really troubling. They may not have the impact of a “terrorist spectacular” but they offer other advantages to terrorists. They’re cheap, they do not require many sophisticated or highly trained participants, they pose a relatively low risk of capture, and they can be carried out with easy to acquire materials. Using these tactics a competent team of terrorists could terrorize a city for years. Frankly, I’m surprised that we haven’t seen more if this in the continental US.
