Group Claims Responsibility for Mumbai Bombings, in Retaliation for Muslim Deaths in 2002 Gujarat Riots

July 17, 2006

Source: The Peninsula/The Sunday Times

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=India&month=July2006&file=World_News2006071791959.xml

On July 17, 2006 The Sunday Times reported, "The Mumbai railway bombings were carried out by an Islamists militant group in retaliation for the deaths of more than 1,000 Muslims in riots in the neighbouring state of Gujarat, a leading member claimed this weekend. The group, Gujarat Revenge, is an offshoot of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which detectives believe was responsible for the bomb attacks. A SIMI leader — known as Usman — told The Sunday Times that first-class passengers were targeted because they were mainly wealthy Gujaratis who, he claimed, had financed the state’s Hindu fundamentalist government. He accused Gujarat’s Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, of failing to protect the Muslim minority during riots in 2002. Usman said that the group would launch more attacks in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, two of the state’s largest cities, and that the bombing campaign would continue until Modi was 'sacked or punished'. He did not regret any of the Hindu deaths in the bombings and said Muslims who died had been inevitable casualties of a 'war'."