Animals Attack, And Innocence Dies...
I likewise join Thomas in thanking Sabrina for taking the helm of the site while we are on sabbatical. However, today's incidents, on the heels of the departure of my brother back to his job in the GWOT, makes this day much more poignant. I warn everyone now that the link below contains graphic images of today's attack in India.
http://dog-pundit.blogspot.com/
Dog-Pundit has the images, but the reports are cited below.
Three powerful bombs ripped through New Delhi markets packed with families and shoppers on Saturday ahead of the biggest Hindu and Muslim festivals of the year, killing dozens and wounding scores more.
Charred bodies, blood, glass and smoking debris littered the scenes as rescuers frantically pulled out the dead and injured while thousands of survivors milled around in shock trying to find out what had happened to missing relatives.
The blasts occurred within minutes of each other, killing more than 40 people, officials said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared it an act of terrorism, while adding it was too early to speculate who was responsible.
"There was a huge sound," said Sunita, who lives near one of the devastated markets, in an area also poplar with foreign backpackers. "I saw many people lying on the ground. I saw a child's arm cut off and somebody else's brain smashed out. It was very bad. Very bad."
Singh and other officials called for calm and police in the financial capital, Mumbai, put the city on high alert. Markets around Delhi began closing down as emergency vehicles battled their way through gridlocked streets.
"He is very distressed," Singh's spokesman told reporters. "India will never be defeated by terrorism."
India has blamed previous attacks on the capital on Pakistan-based militants, including one on parliament in 2001 that killed more than a dozen people and brought India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear war.
But the country is also racked by scores of rebellions and two cinema blasts blamed on Sikh separatists killed one person and injured dozens in May.
US WARNING
The United States recently warned its citizens of a possible terrorist attack on U.S. interests in Delhi and elsewhere and Indian authorities are hunting a suspected al Qaeda operative here. The city's American Embassy School cancelled all classes for Monday after Saturday's attacks.
"We saw bodies terribly charred, limbs missing. It was a horrible sight, a terrible sight," one British tourist told NDTV television. "Don't let the terrorists win."
The first blast was reported in the Paharganj district, near the main New Delhi railway station and an area popular with foreign backpackers. Shopkeepers there cleared their carts and used them as makeshift stretchers to rush victims to hospital.
Other explosions were at the Sarojini Nagar market in south Delhi and in Govindpuri, a southern suburb.
Delhi state chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, said the attacks were clearly planned to spark terror.
"It is something that has been planned, that is quite obvious," she told reporters. "It was someone whose intentions are not good, that is also obvious.
"It's a very sad day for all of us. The fact that these blasts came and took away so many lives has dampened our spirits and made us feel very sad."
On Tuesday, Hindus celebrate Diwali, or the festival of lights, and later in the week Muslims end the fasting month of Ramadan with Eid al-Fitr.
Delhi's 14 million people are mostly Hindu, like in the rest of India, but there are about 1.7 Muslim residents in the city.
As it has with previous attacks, Pakistan immediately condemned "these terrorist blasts". Indian officials said the powerful explosive RDX was used in all three explosions. Television news channels speculated Singh would rush back from an official trip to the eastern city of Kolkata.
The blasts occurred just on dusk on a fine autumn evening, with Delhi's markets and streets crammed with families, holidaymakers and shoppers, many dressed in their colourful best for the coming festivals.
The wail of scores of sirens were punctuated by almost continuous explosions from fireworks being set off ahead of Diwali.
The blast at Govindpuri occurred near an overcrowded bus and could have been much worse, officials said.
The conductor noticed two men had left their bag behind and shouted at them, while a passenger opened it. The conductor hurled the bag into nearby brush, where it exploded.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the animals were still at work.
Three teenage Christian girls were beheaded and a fourth was seriously wounded in a savage attack on Saturday by unidentified assailants in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi.
The girls were among a group of students from a private Christian high school who were ambushed while walking through a cocoa plantation in Poso Kota subdistrict on their way to class, police Major Riky Naldo said.
The area is close to the provincial capital of Poso, about 1000 kilometres northeast of Jakarta.
Naldo said the heads of the three dead victims were found several kilometres from their bodies.
In Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the police to begin a hunt for the killers.
"In the holy month of Ramadan, we are again shocked by a sadistic crime in Poso that claimed the lives of three school students," he told reporters at the airport as he prepared to fly to Sumatra island.
"I condemn this barbarous killing, whoever the perpetrators are and whatever their motives."
He ordered the security forces to find the killers and maintain order in the region.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but Central Sulawesi has a roughly equal number of Muslims and Christians. The province was the scene of a bloody religious war in 2001-2002 that killed around 1000 people from both communities.
At the time, beheadings, burnings and other atrocities were common.
A government-mediated truce succeeded in ending the conflict in early 2002, but there have since been a series of bomb attacks and assassinations of Christians.
These included a blast at a market in Poso, a predominantly Christian town, that killed 22 people in May.
Christian leaders have repeatedly accused the authorities in Jakarta of not doing enough to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
The Christian-Muslim conflict in Sulawesi was an extension of a wider sectarian war in the nearby Maluku archipelago in which up to 9000 perished between 1999 and 2002.
The Maluku conflict intensified soon after it began with the arrival of volunteers belonging to Laskar Jihad, a newly created militia from Indonesia's main island of Java that was supported by hardline elements of the security forces.
Analysts and diplomats accused senior army commanders of funding and training the militia, which was hurriedly disbanded following the terrorist attacks on the tourist island of Bali in 2002 which claimed 202 lives, including 88 Australians.
This is evidence that the animals are not backing down. It is further evidence that my brother still has work to do. It was not easy watching him get on the plane today to go back to the Third-World hell-hole he finally got leave from. It had been four years since I last saw him; I obviously did not want him to leave.
But the animlas refuse to relent. Until they raise their flag, and admit defeat, we still have work to do. These animals cannot be allowed to win this war. To do so will only incite more violence; there's would never be met by ours. Not anymore. We draw the line. Our allies draw the line. And we end this fight. Not just for the present generation, but for future generations to come. We should not burden them with this war. If we fail to stand up to them now further violence is assured.
The Bunny ;)
I likewise join Thomas in thanking Sabrina for taking the helm of the site while we are on sabbatical. However, today's incidents, on the heels of the departure of my brother back to his job in the GWOT, makes this day much more poignant. I warn everyone now that the link below contains graphic images of today's attack in India.
http://dog-pundit.blogspot.com/
Dog-Pundit has the images, but the reports are cited below.
Three powerful bombs ripped through New Delhi markets packed with families and shoppers on Saturday ahead of the biggest Hindu and Muslim festivals of the year, killing dozens and wounding scores more.
Charred bodies, blood, glass and smoking debris littered the scenes as rescuers frantically pulled out the dead and injured while thousands of survivors milled around in shock trying to find out what had happened to missing relatives.
The blasts occurred within minutes of each other, killing more than 40 people, officials said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared it an act of terrorism, while adding it was too early to speculate who was responsible.
"There was a huge sound," said Sunita, who lives near one of the devastated markets, in an area also poplar with foreign backpackers. "I saw many people lying on the ground. I saw a child's arm cut off and somebody else's brain smashed out. It was very bad. Very bad."
Singh and other officials called for calm and police in the financial capital, Mumbai, put the city on high alert. Markets around Delhi began closing down as emergency vehicles battled their way through gridlocked streets.
"He is very distressed," Singh's spokesman told reporters. "India will never be defeated by terrorism."
India has blamed previous attacks on the capital on Pakistan-based militants, including one on parliament in 2001 that killed more than a dozen people and brought India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear war.
But the country is also racked by scores of rebellions and two cinema blasts blamed on Sikh separatists killed one person and injured dozens in May.
US WARNING
The United States recently warned its citizens of a possible terrorist attack on U.S. interests in Delhi and elsewhere and Indian authorities are hunting a suspected al Qaeda operative here. The city's American Embassy School cancelled all classes for Monday after Saturday's attacks.
"We saw bodies terribly charred, limbs missing. It was a horrible sight, a terrible sight," one British tourist told NDTV television. "Don't let the terrorists win."
The first blast was reported in the Paharganj district, near the main New Delhi railway station and an area popular with foreign backpackers. Shopkeepers there cleared their carts and used them as makeshift stretchers to rush victims to hospital.
Other explosions were at the Sarojini Nagar market in south Delhi and in Govindpuri, a southern suburb.
Delhi state chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, said the attacks were clearly planned to spark terror.
"It is something that has been planned, that is quite obvious," she told reporters. "It was someone whose intentions are not good, that is also obvious.
"It's a very sad day for all of us. The fact that these blasts came and took away so many lives has dampened our spirits and made us feel very sad."
On Tuesday, Hindus celebrate Diwali, or the festival of lights, and later in the week Muslims end the fasting month of Ramadan with Eid al-Fitr.
Delhi's 14 million people are mostly Hindu, like in the rest of India, but there are about 1.7 Muslim residents in the city.
As it has with previous attacks, Pakistan immediately condemned "these terrorist blasts". Indian officials said the powerful explosive RDX was used in all three explosions. Television news channels speculated Singh would rush back from an official trip to the eastern city of Kolkata.
The blasts occurred just on dusk on a fine autumn evening, with Delhi's markets and streets crammed with families, holidaymakers and shoppers, many dressed in their colourful best for the coming festivals.
The wail of scores of sirens were punctuated by almost continuous explosions from fireworks being set off ahead of Diwali.
The blast at Govindpuri occurred near an overcrowded bus and could have been much worse, officials said.
The conductor noticed two men had left their bag behind and shouted at them, while a passenger opened it. The conductor hurled the bag into nearby brush, where it exploded.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the animals were still at work.
Three teenage Christian girls were beheaded and a fourth was seriously wounded in a savage attack on Saturday by unidentified assailants in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi.
The girls were among a group of students from a private Christian high school who were ambushed while walking through a cocoa plantation in Poso Kota subdistrict on their way to class, police Major Riky Naldo said.
The area is close to the provincial capital of Poso, about 1000 kilometres northeast of Jakarta.
Naldo said the heads of the three dead victims were found several kilometres from their bodies.
In Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the police to begin a hunt for the killers.
"In the holy month of Ramadan, we are again shocked by a sadistic crime in Poso that claimed the lives of three school students," he told reporters at the airport as he prepared to fly to Sumatra island.
"I condemn this barbarous killing, whoever the perpetrators are and whatever their motives."
He ordered the security forces to find the killers and maintain order in the region.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but Central Sulawesi has a roughly equal number of Muslims and Christians. The province was the scene of a bloody religious war in 2001-2002 that killed around 1000 people from both communities.
At the time, beheadings, burnings and other atrocities were common.
A government-mediated truce succeeded in ending the conflict in early 2002, but there have since been a series of bomb attacks and assassinations of Christians.
These included a blast at a market in Poso, a predominantly Christian town, that killed 22 people in May.
Christian leaders have repeatedly accused the authorities in Jakarta of not doing enough to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
The Christian-Muslim conflict in Sulawesi was an extension of a wider sectarian war in the nearby Maluku archipelago in which up to 9000 perished between 1999 and 2002.
The Maluku conflict intensified soon after it began with the arrival of volunteers belonging to Laskar Jihad, a newly created militia from Indonesia's main island of Java that was supported by hardline elements of the security forces.
Analysts and diplomats accused senior army commanders of funding and training the militia, which was hurriedly disbanded following the terrorist attacks on the tourist island of Bali in 2002 which claimed 202 lives, including 88 Australians.
This is evidence that the animals are not backing down. It is further evidence that my brother still has work to do. It was not easy watching him get on the plane today to go back to the Third-World hell-hole he finally got leave from. It had been four years since I last saw him; I obviously did not want him to leave.
But the animlas refuse to relent. Until they raise their flag, and admit defeat, we still have work to do. These animals cannot be allowed to win this war. To do so will only incite more violence; there's would never be met by ours. Not anymore. We draw the line. Our allies draw the line. And we end this fight. Not just for the present generation, but for future generations to come. We should not burden them with this war. If we fail to stand up to them now further violence is assured.
The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 6:56 PM
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