July 11: On This Day in World History … briefly
Pressure cooker bombs were placed on trains on the western line of the suburban ('local') train network, which forms the backbone of the city's transport network.
2006: Mumbai train bombings kills 209
The Mumbai train bombings were 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.
Pressure cookers were used in this bombing and other recent explosions to increase the afterburn in a thermobaric reaction, more powerful than conventional high explosives. The first blast reportedly took place at 18.24pm and the explosions continued for approximately eleven minutes, until 18.35pm, during the after-work rush hour.
All the bombs had been placed in the first-class ‘general’ compartments (as opposed to compartments reserved for women, called ‘ladies compartments) of several trains running from Churchgate, the city-centre end of the western railway line, to the western suburbs of the city. They exploded at or in the near vicinity of the suburban railway stations of Matunga Road, Mahim, Bandra, Khar Road, Jogeshwari, Bhayandar and Borivali. Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters that authorities had ‘some’ information an attack was coming, ‘but place and time was not known’.
The bombs were set off on trains plying on the suburban section of the Mumbai division of Western Railway. The blasts killed 209 people and injured over 700 more.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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