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  1. Long reads
4 December 2008

India under siege

By Nick Stokeld

01.01.2008 Seven police and one civilian killed in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh (UP). The attackers are suspected members of the HuJI, Sunni fundamentalists who aim to impose Taliban-style government on Bangladesh.

10.02.2008 Six alleged Islamic extremists are arrested in UP on suspicion of planning to attack the Bombay Stock Exchange. Suspects linked to Lashkar-e-Toiba, the same group thought to be behind the recent attacks.

13.02.2008 In Mumbai, the politician Raj Thackeray is arrested for inciting violence, after supporters attack northern Indians throughout the city.

13.05.08 Eight bomb blasts in Jaipur, Rajasthan, kill at least 60 people. A previously unknown group, the Indian Mujahedin, claims responsibility.

25.07.08 Nine bombs hit Bangalore, Karnataka, killing two and injuring 20. The attack is later linked to Indian Mujahedin.

26.07.08 In Ahmedabad, which has a history of violent clashes between the Hindu and Muslim populations, 45 are killed and 161 injured when at least 16 bombs, attributed to the Indian Mujahedin, explode around the city.

25.08.08 Violent clashes in Kashmir are sparked by plans to donate land to a Hindu shrine in a Muslim-dominated area of the disputed province. Five are killed and a strict curfew imposed.

13.09.08 Five bombs rip through Delhi‘s shopping districts almost simultaneously, killing at least 20 people and injuring about 90; four more bombs are defused. The Indian Mujahedin again claims responsibility.

27.09.08 A bomb in the market district of Mehrauli in south Delhi, kills three. No group claims responsibility.

29.09.08 The day before a major Gujarat festival starts, a low-intensity bomb goes off at an Ahmedabad market. Police report finding a cache of 17 crude bombs.

30.09.08 Two bombs explode in Malegaon, Maharashtra, killing five and injuring 30. After the blast, a mob forms, pelting police with stones. Hindu Jagran Manch, an Indore-based extremist group, is blamed.

01.10.08 A triple bomb blast in Agartala, Tripura, is blamed on HuJI. At least two are killed and 100 wounded.

20.10.08 Chhattisgarh police are attacked and 15 killed by Naxalites, a Maoist group described by the PM, Manmohan Singh, as “the biggest single internal challenge ever faced” by India.

30.10.08 At least 18 blasts attributed to HuJI kill around 64 and injure 300 in Guwahati, Assam.

14.11.08 Gun battles between Maoists and police erupt around Chhattisgarh during the state’s elections. At least two members of the security forces are killed.

23.11.08 Security forces clash with anti-election protesters around Rajouri in the run-up to Kashmir‘s elections, a day after paramilitaries kill two youths at an anti-India demonstration.

Nick Stokeld

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