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Bloggers help connect Mumbai
13/07/2006 15:27 - (SA)
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| Ambica Kilawala, whose husband is missing after the Mumbai train blasts, waits outside the morgue of Bhaba hospital. (Aijaz Rahi, AP)
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Mumbai - Indian bloggers were on Thursday helping people trace missing relatives and giving them an outlet for their grief over the Mumbai blasts which killed more than 200 people and wounded more than 700.
On mumbaihelp.blogspot.com people posted photographs and descriptions of relatives who had still not yet returned home after Tuesday evening's rush-hour train explosions.
Hemant Patil from Britain posted a desperate plea looking for his father. He got several responses within less than an hour from people who managed to speak to his father in Mumbai, India's financial capital.
'He is fine, thank God!'
"My sister was able to establish contact with my father. He is fine, thank God! He was safely back at home when the blasts happened," wrote Patil.
"Thank you all for your support and help."
Other bloggers, such as Shiladitya C, announced their intention to help people find missing ones.
"I'm going to try and get photographs of unidentified wounded and deceased at the hospitals," he wrote.
Anguish and anger
On other blogs, people vented anguish and anger in equal measure over the blasts in the western Indian city of nearly 18 million that police suspect may have been the work of Islamic militants.
"Why Bombay (Mumbai's former name)? Why always Bombay? Because it's big and successful, so if you can make a splash there you're sure to hit the big time," wrote a blogger who identified himself as Thariel.
"Please, please let there not be a (Hindu) backlash. I'm incoherent ... The trains, soft spot, so horrifyingly easy. It's a miracle it hadn't happened before."
"The Mumbai blast is surely an act of terrorism and terrorism has no face, no boundary, no beliefs in existence of God and his promise of Judgment Day," wrote Subhan from Dubai. "Terrorism surely has no value for life."
Set up after floods
Mumbaihelp was set up after the city was hit last year by floods in which more than 400 people were killed, according to blog guide Global Voices Online.
Mumbai, which has been the target of many bomb attacks recently, had its first experience of such large-scale attacks in 1993 when a string of blasts killed more than 250 people.
Other internet surfers logged in to provide help, give information and updates on missing people, provide contact numbers for police, hospitals and helplines and urge people to show gratitude to strangers who helped them.
Say "thank you" to the person "who handed you a glass of water or a biscuit. To the school that let you sleep the night. To the stranger who gave you a lift. To the taxi driver who didn't put his meter down," the website says.
Life goes on
While many bloggers praised the resilience of the city and its residents in the wake of the attack, others were sceptical.
"Be it NYC (New York City) or London or Mumbai, life would go on even after bombs attack the trains, towers and what not. And you know why? If people don't go about their lives, they won't get their day's moolah," wrote Deepa from the United States.
"Simple as that. So every time some attack happens, people should stop talking about the spirit. Even the victims might get annoyed."
- AFP
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