Mumbai: Thousands of Mumbai residents formed a human chain snaking through the city on Friday near sites attacked by terrorists last month, in the latest demonstration against the assault and failure of the government to stop it.
Schoolchildren in uniforms, office workers, city employees, commuters and senior citizens, many with posters pinned to their clothes, held hands and shouted slogans against terrorism and government inaction for 15 minutes from noon.
Some carried pictures of some of victims who were killed in the attacks that lasted from November 26-29.
"This is to create awareness among people about terrorism and draw the attention of our politicians," said Saurabh Vadgaonkar, who with several classmates, took time off from college to link hands a short distance from the Taj Mahal Hotel.
The chain, broken at several points, made its way from the Taj Mahal Hotel in south Mumbai, where terrorists held hostages and fought off commandos for 60 hours, to the northern suburbs.
It slowed traffic in some places until petering out farther north.
Mumbai has seen numerous candlelight vigils, rallies and marches in the days since the attacks, with information spreading through mass text messages, e-mail and online community sites, and galvanising the normally placid middle-class.
Many demonstrators have expressed anger at what they see as failures by the security and intelligence apparatus to prevent this attack and other earlier bombings in the country over the last year.
Security, and an economic slowdown, are expected to be major issues in elections due by the middle of next year.
"I think the families of the victims also appreciate gestures like this, because it shows we care and we remember," Vadgaonkar said.
Tech-savvy youth have also set up web sites and blogs to encourage demonstrations like these.
"It's the middle of a working day, otherwise surely there would have been more people," said Ruhi Rane, a classmate of Vadgaonkar.
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