Clint Taylor: Mumbai Bombings and Blogs

posted at 5:23 pm on July 20, 2006 by Bryan
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Just got this in from our friend Clint Taylor, who has been following developments on the Mumbai bombings.

A reporter for Bombay’s newspaper Afternoon claims that a blog post intended for Indian arch-criminal Dawood Ibrahim was put online 4 hours before the 7/11 attack. The message was posted on Orkut–a Google-owned service much like Friendster or MySpace.

The message (which I haven’t seen; I’m relying on Afternoon’s description) originated in Karachi, and simply said “Mumbai bomb blast/?//” Now, this might have been some reference to Ibrahim’s suspected involvement in the 1993 Mumbai attacks, or some prank. But the Indian government is taking it seriously.

It wouldn’t be the first prank associated with the blasts. There has already been one arrest–of a 19-year old New Delhi student who sent in a prank e-mail to the press claiming the blast originated with Lashkar-e-Qahar, also known as the Students Islamic Movement of India. While the prank does not exonerate them, India’s attention is still focused on a Bangladeshi connection and Pakistani support.

Previously, Clint reported on the possible connection to Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian underworld figure who turns up in the Afternoon report.

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