【英语生活】印度内政部长：孟买爆炸并非情报工作不力

Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said the three bomb blasts in Mumbai on Wednesday were the result of stealthy work by terrorists and don't signal a breakdown of intelligence-gathering by Indian security officials and police authorities.

'Whoever planned this attack worked in a very, very clandestine manner,' he told reporters in a Thursday morning televised press conference. 'It's not a failure of intelligence.'

Mr. Chidambaram labeled the bombings a coordinated terrorist attack, but said it was too early to point a finger at any particular militant outfit, domestic or foreign. 'All groups that have the capacity to carry out such terror attacks are suspected,' Mr. Chidambaram said.

The home minister provided updated casualty figures, saying 18 people had died in the attacks and 131 were hospitalized. He said 26 have since been discharged and 23 are seriously injured.

Mr. Chidambaram said teams of investigators reached Mumbai last night and have started to piece together initial forensic evidence alongside local police. So far, he said, they have learned that ammonium nitrate was an ingredient in the explosives and that they weren't remotely triggered.

Investigators' priorities, he said, will be to assess how the bombs were set off--one theory is that timers were used--as well as how they were packaged and what amount of damage each caused. Footage from security cameras near the bomb sites could help investigators.

The blasts occurred in three separate locations of the city--the busy wholesale market of Zaveri Bazaar, a bus stop in a middle-class neighborhood in central Mumbai, and Opera House, an area in southern Mumbai that hosts the city's diamond hub.

Punit Paranjpe/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images印度内政部长奇丹巴拉姆（图片中央）来到位于孟买的歌剧院爆炸现场进行调查。印度内政部长奇丹巴拉姆(P. Chidambaram)说，周三发生在孟买的三起炸弹爆炸是恐怖分子秘密活动的结果，并不意味着印度安全官员和警察部门的情报搜集工作失灵。

周四上午一场电视转播的新闻发布会上，他对众记者说，不管是谁策划了这次袭击，都是以非常、非常隐蔽的方式进行的，这不是情报工作的失败。

奇丹巴拉姆说连环爆炸事件是协同进行的恐怖袭击，但他说，指责任何具体的极端团体还为时过早，不管是国内的还是国外的。奇丹巴拉姆说，所有具备执行这种恐怖袭击能力的组织都有嫌疑。

奇丹巴拉姆给出最新伤亡数字，说有18人在袭击中丧生，131人入院治疗。他说，有26人已经出院，23人伤势严重。

Xinhua/Sipa Press警方官员察看位于孟买南部扎韦里集市的爆炸地点。政府官员认为，此次发生在印度金融中心的三起爆炸事件是恐怖分子所为。奇丹巴拉姆说，调查团队周三晚间抵达孟买，已经开始同当地警方一道搜集初步法证。他说，到目前为止，调查团队已经获知爆炸物中含有硝酸铵，并且不是遥控引爆的。

他说，调查人员的首要任务将是判断炸弹是怎样引爆的（一个假说是使用了定时器），并了解炸弹的组装方法和每一枚炸弹造成的破坏程度。爆炸现场附近监控摄像头拍到的录像可能有助于调查人员了解情况。

爆炸发生在孟买三个不同地点，分别是繁华批发集市扎韦里巴扎(Zaveri Bazaar)，孟买中部某中产阶级社区的一个公交车站，以及孟买钻石交易中心所在地、位于该市南部的歌剧院一带。