Toll in 13/7 Mumbai triple blasts climbs to 27

Mumbai: The toll in the July 13 Mumbai triple blasts climbed to 27 with one more injured succumbing on Thursday evening, an official said. The victim has been identified as Prashant H Joshi, 34, and he breathed his last around 2.50 pm, at Sir JJ Hospital where he was undergoing treatment for the past two months, the hospital dean TP Lahane said.

The triple blasts, at close intervals, shook the country's diamond and gold hubs - Opera House and Zaveri Bazar, respectively, besides the busy commercial area of Dadar west.

Joshi was among the injured in the blast at Zaveri Bazar from where he was rushed to Sir JJ Hospital at Byculla in south Mumbai.

Presently, another three injured continue to be under treatment at the hospital, Lahane said.

The disaster control centre could not provide the figures of the remaining injured who are still under treatment at various public and private hospitals.

All the targeted sites are densely populated and form the backbone of the city's trade and commercial activities.

Besides the 27 dead so far, another 125 were injured in the explosions.

The investigation is being conducted by teams of the Mumbai Police, Maharashtra's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and others, with support from the local security agencies in several states.

Though the investigations are spanning Mumbai, other parts of Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, West Bengal, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, police have so far only succeeded in making the sketch of a suspect based on an eyewitness account.

Confounding the investigators is the fact that, so far, no group has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

According to opposition parties, both the major terror attacks post-26/11 have been in Maharashtra.

The first was the February 13, 2010 blast at the German Bakery in Pune, followed by the July 13 blasts this year.

In fact, since the Mumbai serial blasts of March 12, 1993, there have been a total of 16 major terror incidents in the city and elsewhere in the state.

Barring July 13, all have been solved, including the Pune German Bakery blast, which sleuths cracked after a few months.