Word: indianness
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...original version of this article incorrectly referred to Ahmedabad as the capital of the Indian state of Gujarat. While Ahmedabad is the commercial and cultural center of the state, Gandhinagar is the actual capital...
...after major Indian cities were placed on high alert following blasts in the IT city of Bangalore, as many as 17 blasts ripped through Ahmedabad, commercial capital of the affluent western Indian state of Gujarat. Some 30 people were killed, some at hospitals where bombs were timed to go off when the injured from other blasts were being brought in. (Later, in Surat, a center for the world's diamond industry, a bomb was defused near a hospital, and two cars packed with explosives were found in the city's outskirts.) Investigators pointed fingers at the usual Islamist suspects: Pakistan...
Several TV news stations received an e-mail five minutes before the first blasts in Ahmedabad. The message reportedly had the Indian Mujahideen proclaiming that they were based within the country, claiming sole responsibility for the attacks and asking other organisations like LeT not to take credit. The e-mail purportedly cited a list of grievances against India's Hindu majority and hinted at more attacks to come. The same group had claimed responsibility for blasts that killed 63 people in the northwestern city of Jaipur in May this year, as well as for serial blasts in the northern cities...
While the credibility of the e-mail has yet to be established, the recent bombings have forced the Indian authorities to face some very uncomfortable facts. First, terrorist groups now have the wherewithal to strike at will and inflict significant damage. The targeting of Bangalore, one of the pivots of India's nascent economy, shows an ability to strategize. Second, recent efforts to spruce up intelligence-gathering and policing have been entirely inadequate. Despite the security threats festering across the country - there have been 11 major Islamist bombings in the past three years and over a dozen in the insurgency...
Experts like Joshi believe that disgruntled Islamist extremists in India are now a part of the global jihad - "united by the Internet and cutting across class lines." Says Raman: "Over the last few years, [Indian Islamist terrorists] have expanded the ambit of their grievances from purely domestic issues to global issues like the U.S.-led war in Iraq. They are a part of the pan-Islamic agenda." Last year, two brothers, Indian Muslim doctors from Bangalore, were implicated in the abortive Glasgow attacks...