The Indian government are calling the multiple blasts that tore through the country’s business capital, Mumbai, an attack on the heart of India. Three coordinated, separate blasts were detonated remotely, rather than using suicide bombers. Experts are suggesting that the blasts are the work of a lesser, more amateur group rather than one of the major terrorist cells. Regardless of who carried out the three blasts, they mark the first incident of this magnitude in the area since November 2008 when a group of ten militants held the city hostage for over sixty hours, leaving nearly two hundred people dead and causing increasing ill will between India and Pakistan.

The first blast came near the Jhaveri Bazaar, a world famous jewelry market. That explosion detonated from beneath an umbrella, found near a string of eateries that is frequented by people on their evening commute. The second blast, which was the more powerful of the three, happened at Opera House, the busy business district in South Mumbai. That blast stemmed from the Prasad Chamber Building.

The final blast came in a crowded neighborhood in Dadar, located in Central Mumbia. The explosives for that blast were placed in a meter box, on an electric pole found near a bus stop. A fourth bomb was found in Dadar and was recovered by the bomb squad. All three of the blasts happened in precision with only a few minutes between blast number one and the final blast. When it was over, each of the blast scenes were described as chaotic, with fire and heavy, black smoke blanketing the sky. Bodies and blood were every where, while police and other officials tried to gain control of the scenes, trying to find the injured as well as looking for additional threats or explosives.

Analysts are not only looking for the source of the explosions but the reasoning as well. Much of the world is casting a wary eye to the area, wondering what it might be for relations between India and Pakistan. In the US, experts are also questioning what these blasts might mean for President Obama’s plans to start bringing American troops home from Afghanistan at the end of this month. That plan hinges on Pakistan and India working together to battle terrorism. Pakistan has been expressing its unhappiness for the past few months, including outrage that $800 million dollars in aid from the US will not be coming as promised.

The US State Department has offered assistance to India, not only to investigate the cause of the blasts but to bring those responsible to justice as well. The blasts have so far not had any effect on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s plans to visit the New Delhi area in mid July.

The original death count had been twenty one people, however, that has been officially adjusted to seventeen confirmed deaths and 133 people injured.