New York reinforced security on the city’s vast public transit network on Tuesday in response to deadly bomb attacks on commuter trains in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, as United States officials condemned the “horrific” blasts.
“We are stepping up security throughout,” a police spokesperson said.
Day duty officers would be held over to provide extra personnel during the evening rush hour, while the frequency of random bag searches on the subway would be expanded, the spokesperson said.
The bag searches were introduced last year in the wake of the July 7 bombings on the London transport system.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice condemned the blasts, which ripped through rush-hour trains in Mumbai, as “horrific”.
“There is no political cause that can justify the murder of innocent people,” Rice said in a statement. “The United States condemns today’s horrific terrorist attacks in Kashmir and Mumbai. Many people have lost their lives and many others have been injured. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.
“The United States stands with India in the war against terror. Those responsible for these terrible acts should be swiftly brought to justice.”
The State Department said the US government has already been in touch with the Indian government to offer any assistance needed, noting that an investigation has been opened into the attacks, which killed at least 163 people and wounded 464 others.
So far, two Americans are known to have been injured in the attacks, though there has not yet been a full accounting, he said.
Calls of condemnation also rang out from the US Congress, where Senate majority leader Bill Frist condemned the “cowardly and barbaric act”.
“On behalf of my Senate colleagues and the American people, I express my deepest sympathies to the victims, their families, and to the people of India.”
‘Ever-closer ties’
Leading Democratic lawmaker Tom Lantos said that after the bombing, the US and India “have fresh incentive to forge ever-closer ties”.
“And should the Indian government ask for assistance with the investigation, I call on the United States government to underscore the importance of these ties by committing every available resource to get to the bottom of this latest outrage,” Lantos said.
He said that like the September 11 2001 attacks, the India bombings suffered from “the tragic outcome of the civilized world’s struggle with terrorism”.
New York has remained on a heightened state of terror alert ever since the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre.
Recent years have seen specific alerts sounded over a possible terror attack on the city’s transit system, which carries 7,7-million commuters on an average working day.
Only last week, the FBI said it had foiled a terror plot by a group of al-Qaeda followers to carry out suicide attacks on train tunnels in New York and New Jersey.
Spain
Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero expressed his “profound sadness” to his Indian counterpart on Tuesday, saying the train strikes that killed at least 163 in Mumbai revived the horrors of a similar attack in Madrid two years ago.
“In the name of the Spanish government and on my own behalf, I want to express my profound sadness for the very serious terrorist attacks which have struck your country,” Zapatero told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a telegram.
“I also want to express the solidarity and affection of the Spanish people … Today’s attacks against seven trains in Bombay [Mumbai] recall the tragic scenes we saw in Madrid on March 11 2004.”
Suspected Islamist attackers backed by al-Qaeda carried out 10 simultaneous explosions on four commuter trains in Madrid during the morning rush hour on March 11 2004, killing 191 people and injuring 1 900 others. — AFP