Two tourists have been shot by two men on a motorcycle who fired off many rounds indiscriminately outside the Jama Masjid mosque in central New Delhi, India, a popular tourist attraction. The shooting 19 September comes just two weeks ahead of the Commonwealth Games hosted by India. The men, both Taiwanese, are out of danger in hospital. Witnesses told police they had seen the motorcycle crisscrossing the area before the shooting. Police have made no arrests. Later, a group calling itself Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in response to the deaths in Indian-occupied Kashmir. Hours later a car caught fire metres away from the scene of the shooting. The cause of the fire is not known.
The attack has raised concerns that security surrounding the athletes may not be sufficient. Lalit Bhanot, secretary-general of the Commonwealth Games organizing committee said the incident would have “no impact” on the Games.
Links to other sites: ABC News, BBC, Hindustan Times, Times of India
Suicide bombers and commando-style Taliban militants have attacked several targets in the centre of Kabul, Afghanistan, leaving at least five dead and dozens wounded. The militants targeted government buildings and banks in the centre of the city 18 January, and Afghan security forces initially struggled to respond and restore order. Two central shopping centres are reported to be on fire, and Taliban militants have sought refuge in a cinema complex from which gunfire can still be heard.
A Taliban spokesman said that a suicide bomber had detonated a bomb near the entrance to the presidential palace, as President Hamid Karzai was swearing in new members of his government.
The US administration condemned the attacks as “desperate and ruthless”. Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the region spoke to reporters in New Dehli, India, hours after leaving Kabul earlier, saying “the people doing this certainly will not survive the attack, nor will they succeed. But we can expect this sort of thing on a regular basis,” reports Reuters.
Karzai was expected to announce a plan to integrate Taliban fighters into normal life at an aid conference in London, UK later this month.
India’s top carmaker Maruti Suzuki has said it will sell a five-seater multi-purpose car, the Eeco, for Rs259,000, or $5,640. Maruti says it hopes to sell 40,000 of the cars per year. The seven-seater version will sell for Rs275,000. Specifically designed for Indian families and Indian roads, the car was launched at New Delhi’s Auto Expo Thursday 7 January.
An electric concept version of the car, the Eco Charger, was shown as well.
Other links: Economic Times, Hindu Business Line, Reuters
India has announced it will withdraw about 15,000 troops from Jammu and Kashmir, in the country’s far north, in a bid to defuse tensions with Pakistan. The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has just concluded a two-day visit to the region, where the Indian army has been battling a separatist insurgency since 1989. Singh told a regional summit in New Delhi Friday 30 October that the countries of the region had “to overcome the burden of history” to achieve peace.
Indian authorities said the region’s security situation had improved to the extent that responsibility could increasingly be left to the police. The Indian army played down the move, saying it had more to do with sending a message to the main separatist group in Jammu and Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, than relations with Pakistan. They pointed out that the redeployment was from the Jammu region, rather than the more conflictive Kashmir area.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars over the region since independence and division in 1947. Pakistan has been criticized for keeping most of its army on the border with India, and ignoring the threat posed to Pakistan itself by Taliban insurgents within its own frontiers. India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of arming and training militants to fight in Kashmir. Singh said 29 October that India was not satisfied with the investigation Pakistan had conducted into last November’s deadly attack on Mumbai, India which was launched from Pakistani territory. Daily Times, New York Times, Times of India
Update 17:06 Seventeen people, mostly people working in the street during rushhour, died in Kabul, Afghanistan Thursday when an explosion occurred, believed to be a suicide car bomb attack, in the road that houses the heavily fortified Indian embassy and the Afghan foreign ministry. More than 60 people are injured. The Taliban says that the Indian embassy was targeted. The Indian foreign minister in New Dehli, Nirupama Rao, is quoted as saying that no Indian was harmed, but parts of the embassy building were damaged by the 8 October explosion.
It is the latest in a series of attacks in Kabul. Last month, six Italian soldiers were killed on an attack on a military convoy in Kabul. The Indian embassy was the target of an attack in July 2008 that killed 58 and wounded 141 people. BBC, Times of India
