Mumbai (AsiaNews) – The city of Mumbai yesterday commemorated the first anniversary of the violent attacks which on July 11 2006 hit various commuter trains killing 187 people. Seven bombs exploded in an arch of 15 minutes in different train stations during the evening rush hour. Over 700 people were wounded by the attack, which Indian police attributed to a terrorist group linked to the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Toiba.
In memory of the tragic event, one of the train carriages, destroyed last year, was restored and put back on the tracks leaving Churchgate station at 18.24, the exact time of the first explosion. Commemoration ceremonies also took place in 6 other stations: from Mahim station – in the city centre – to the western city suburbs. Citizens of every religious extraction paid homage to the victims with flowers and by lighting candles.
Bishop Thomas Dabre of Vasai, Chairman of the CCBI, Commission for Doctrine and Theology, reiteration his “condemnation for every form of terrorism” has invited “All Heads of Religion to come together and reveal the True Face of Religion, which is abused by terrorist”.
In the Mumbai train bombings the bishop lost 70 faithful of his diocese and saw 200 others wounded. “While some injuries can be healed with the passage of time, others can never heal fully - continued the prelate - and that applies especially to the mental anguish suffered by the survivors, whether wounded in body or, by the loss of their loved ones, in spirit”. “So while religion is meant to promote peace, - he concludes - terrorists are doing a great harm to the poor and simple hardworking citizens of society, therefore, it is the need of the hour, is that religious leaders should clearly denounce terrorist tactics as criminal and inexcusable”.