The 2006 Mumbai train bombings, colloquially known as 7/11, were a series of seven bomb blasts on 11 July 2006. They took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the nation's financial capital. The bombs were set off in pressure cookers on trains on the Western Line Suburban Section of the Mumbai Division of Western Railway. The blasts killed 209 people and injured over 700 more.
Pressure cookers were used in the bombing and other attacks to increase the afterburn in a thermobaric reaction, more powerful than conventional high explosives. The first blast reportedly took place at 18:24 IST (12:54 UTC), and the explosions continued until 18:35, during the after-work rush hour. All the bombs had been placed in the first-class "general" compartments of several trains running from Churchgate, the city-centre end of the western railway line, to the western suburbs of the city. They exploded at or in the near vicinity of the suburban railway stations of Matunga Road, Mahim Junction, Bandra, Khar Road, Jogeshwari, Bhayandar and Borivali. Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters that authorities had "some" information an attack was coming, "but place and time was not known".
Initial investigation revealed that the plot was hatched by Azam Cheema, an operative of the Pakistan based Jihad terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba in Bahawalpur, in collaboration with Students' Islamic Movement of India. The probe revealed infiltration of several LeT bombers from Pakistan through Nepal border. Subsequent investigation into the train bombings and other terror attacks in 2008 revealed the involvement of Indian Mujahideen in the attack.
Two Pakistani bombers were eventually gunned down in an encounter with Mumbai police on 21 August 2006, while one bomber was killed in the attack due to crowd rush. Eventually, 13 of the accused were arrested, with 12 people convicted in September 2015, five of whom were given capital punishment.
On 21 July 2025, Bombay High Court acquitted all 12 accused in the case, including those sentenced to life imprisonment. Court said that the prosecution had "utterly failed" to prove the charges against the accused.
On 24 July 2025, Supreme Court of India stayed the acquittal order of the Bombay High Court and later clarified that the released accused would not return to jail.
Injuries and fatalities + 2006 Mumbai train bombingsConfirmed casualties Train Blast location Carriage type Time (IST) Deaths Injured Sources Travelling northfrom Churchgate Khar Road – Santacruz First Class 18:24 9 17:50 Fast LocalChurchgate-Borivali Bandra – Khar Road First Class 18:24 22 17:37 Slow LocalChurchgate-Borivali Jogeshwari (PF #1) First Class 18:25 28 17:54 Fast LocalChurchgate-Borivali Mahim Junction (PF #3) First Class 18:26 43 Travelling northfrom Churchgate Mira Road – Bhayandar First Class 18:29 31 17:57 Fast LocalChurchgate-Virar Matunga Road – Mahim Junction First Class 18:30 28 17:37 Fast LocalChurchgate-Virar Borivali 1 First Class 18:35 26 Total 11 minutes 209 714 1 One bomb exploded at this location, but another one was found by police and defused.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R. R. Patil confirmed that a total of 200 people were killed and another 714 were injured. Various news organisations reported that at least 200 people died and that more than 700 others were injured. A week after the blasts in Mumbai the confirmed death toll rose to 207. In September 2006, it was confirmed that the death toll had risen to 209.
Response
A state of high alert was declared in India's major cities. Both the airports in Mumbai were placed on high alert. The western line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway network was at first shut down, although some trains resumed service later, and stringent security arrangements, including frisking and searching of commuters, were instituted on the other lines of the network. The city's bus service, the BEST, pressed extra buses into service to transport stranded commuters home.
The Prime Minister also held a security meeting at his residence attended by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, and Home Secretary V K Duggal.
Resumption of services and return to normality Western Railway services were restored on 11 July by 10.45 p.m. As a show of investor confidence, the Bombay Stock Exchange rebounded, starting the day with the BSE Sensex Index up by nearly 1% in morning trade. Foreign investors also retained confidence, with the Sensex up almost 3% at 10,930.09 at the end of the day's trade.
Rescue and relief operations
Initial rescue efforts were hampered by the heavy rains and the prevalent monsoon flooding, but quickly took momentum after fellow passengers and bystanders helped victims to reach waiting ambulances and/or provided first aid. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced ex-gratia payments of Rs 100,000 (approximately US $2,200) to the next of kin of those who died in the explosion. The injured would be given Rs 50,000 (approximately US $1,100) each. Indian Railways announced Rs 500,000 (approximately US $10,000) compensation and a job to the next of kin of those killed in the serial blasts in Mumbai. The announcements were made by Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav after visiting those injured in the blasts at a hospital in Mumbai.
However a study commissioned by former MP Kirit Somaiya noted that only 174 of the 1,077 victims had received compensation through the Railway Claims Tribunal. For the handicapped victims, only 15 out of 235 eligible cases had been taken care of. Regarding the Prime Minister's promise to India concerning the rehabilitation of the victims, L. K. Advani noted that "none of the above mentioned assurances has been fulfilled to any degree of satisfaction"Families of 7/11 victims still waiting for Govt relief: Advani, The Pioneer, 13 June 2007
Sources of information Due to the mobile phone networks being jammed, news channels ran tickertapes with information of injured individuals as well as SMS messages from those who wished to contact their families. Reports indicated that at around 18:00 UTC on 11 July (11:30 p.m. in Mumbai), the phone networks were restoring service; telephone service was completely restored during the night.
Investigation
Some 350 people were detained 36 hours after the incident in Maharashtra — police claim that these are people rounded up for investigations. On 14 July, Lashkar-e-Qahhar, a terrorist organisation front linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the bombings. In an e-mail to an Indian TV channel, the outfit says it organised the bombings using 16 people who are all "safe". According to the e-mail, the main motive seems to have been a retaliation to the situation in the Gujarat and Kashmir regions. It also says that the blasts were part of a series of attacks aimed at other sites such as the Mumbai international airport, Gateway of India, the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Red Fort in New Delhi. The authorities are investigating this claim and are trying to track the location of the e-mail sender. However, on 17 July, the forensic science laboratory Mumbai confirmed the use of a mixture of the highly explosive RDX and ammonium nitrate for the bombings. The presence of these explosives in the debris was confirmed by modern techniques such as liquid chromatography with mass detector (LCMS), gas chromatography with mass detector (GCMS) and ion scan chromatography. They indicated a strong possibility of all explosives being planted at the Churchgate railway station, which was the starting point for all affected trains.NDTV.com: Latest News, e-Bulletins, Stocks, Bollywood, Cricket, Video, Blogs, RSS from India
Initially, religious extremists from the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the banned Students Islamic Movement of Pakistani terrorist groups, and Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI were the prime suspects. Both Lashkar and SIMI denied responsibility for the bombings. There was also evidence about the involvement of the international Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda following a phone call from a man claiming to be a spokesperson for the group on 13 July.
On 30 September 2006, CNN reported that "The Indian government accused Pakistan's military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, of planning 11 July Mumbai train bombings that killed 209 people".
The New York City Police Department was intensely concerned about the attacks, citing their simplicity and lethality. To address these worries, the department deployed Brandon del Pozo, a Jordanian-based intelligence officer, to Mumbai to collect information on the attacks and report on ways they reflected similar vulnerabilities in the New York City's extensive commuter rail system.
The main conspirator of the attack, Azam Cheema, who was a part of Lashkar-e-Taiba, hatched the plot in March 2006, and made successful attempts to infiltrate Pakistani bombers into India through the Nepal border. Cheema was reportedly well connected with former ISI chief Hamid Gul. In November 2010, Cheema was sanctioned as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List by the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control Cheema reportedly died of heart attack in February 2024.
Arrests and encounters On 21 July 2006, police arrested three people suspected to be involved in the bombings. Police had detained more than 300 suspects since 18 July but these were the first arrests in the case. Two of the men were detained on Thursday in the northern state of Bihar and the third later in Mumbai. All three are said to belong to the banned SIMI organisation. On the same day, Abdul Karim Tunda was thought to be arrested in Mombasa, Kenya on suspicions of involvement in the train bombings. but it was the wrong person. He was one of India's most wanted men and also a suspected organiser for the banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was arrested in 2013 near the Nepal border.
In late 2006, all the seven key accused in the Mumbai train blasts in July retracted their alleged confession to the police, saying they were illegally forced to sign blank papers, an Indian TV channel reported.
More than a month after the bombings, 2 Pakistani terrorists, Abu Osama and Muhammad Ali, were killed in an encounter with the Mumbai Police at Antop Hill area. Subsequently, investigations in the 2008 Delhi bombings revealed the involvement of Indian Mujahideen in the 2006 attacks, when 2 IM terrorists, Atif Amin, who was involved in the 2006 plot, and Mohammad Sajid, were killed in the Batla House encounter. The capture of IM terrorist Sadiq Sheikh further confirmed the involvement of IM.
Continuing investigation
M K Narayanan, the Indian National Security Advisor, said that India does not have "clinching" evidence of the involvement of ISI in the Mumbai train blasts of 11 July.
"I would hesitate to say we have clinching evidence but we have pretty good evidence," he was quoted as saying on CNN-IBN.
Following Narayanan's remarks, the Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal on Monday characterised the evidence as "very good [...] it is fairly solid evidence,". 5 On 25 September 2008, Hindustan Times reported that "the Crime branch also learnt that the men [behind 2008 Delhi bombings] are those very operatives who had introduced themselves as Pakistanis to perpetrators of 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings.
Involvement of Indian Mujahideen