INDIA: Thousands of hardline Hindu activists marched in silent protest yesterday across India's financial capital, Bombay, where 52 people were killed and 150 injured in two car-bomb explosions, generating tension among the city's large Muslim population.
Wearing black bandannas over their mouths, the protesters from the extremist Shiv Sena party congregated at the port city's best-known promenade alongside the Gateway of India where one of Monday's explosions occurred, turning the area into a sea of saffron flags, the colour of the Hindu nationalist movement.
"The culprits should be caught and shot in the middle of the road," housewife Roopali Dhongle said, in a veiled reference to Muslims without actually naming the community that is widely blamed for the blasts.
Kamlabai Pawar, a 43-year-old widow who was selling flowers near the monument when the explosions occurred, wore the bloodstained blouse and sari she had on when the bomb went off, wept as she walked and expressed similar sentiments.
Around 20 per cent of Bombay's population of 20 million are Muslims.
Leading the march was Uddhav Thackeray, the son and political heir of Shiv Sena's firebrand founder, Bal Thackeray, a former cartoonist who openly professes admiration for Adolf Hitler and has repeatedly expressed his willingness to "wipe out" trouble-making Muslims.
The anti-Muslim sentiment among the marchers intensified after the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Lal Krishna Advani, blamed a banned local Muslim youth organisation and a Pakistan-backed insurgent group for the bombings.
It was further exacerbated after forensic experts declared yesterday that the RDX plastic explosive used in Monday's blats was similar to that used in the serial bombings which rocked the city a decade ago, killing around 350 people.
Meanwhile, several senior police officers privately conceded that corruption was one of the principal causes of the "emasculation" of Bombay's once-efficient force and was responsible for the failure of intelligence in anticipating terrorist bombings.
They declared that with most police posts, including that of the beat constable, "on sale" and promotions available at a price, few in the force were serious about their work.
"Those who are unable to pay for lucrative postings are dejected and demoralised, leading to chaos in the functioning of the force," a senior officer said, declining to be named.
Political interference with police working also impacted negatively on the force. Senior officers admitted that it had become accepted practice not to approach the police or seek legal redress unless every other avenue, however unethical, had been exhausted.
