Pune Blast, Terror Attack in India Again
A power bomb blast rocked Pune at the popular German Bakery, near Osho Ashram, diagonally across the Jewish Chabad House. People who are dead in the Pune blast include 9 people, four of them foreigners, all women. More than 45 people have been rushed to the hospital with varying degrees of injury.
Union home minister P Chidambaram tonight described the blast in Pune as a “significant terrorist incident” since the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 and said that the attack looked targeted at the foreigners.
The German Bakery is a popular haunt of foreigners like Leopold restaurant in Mumbai — in fact, both are cited in he Lonely Planet tourist guide and are therefore patronized by many backpackers.
The blast, which left a 6ftx4ft hole in the wall, took place at 7.15pm when the bakery was milling with people, many of them foreigners. According to Union home secretary G K Pillai, there was an unattended packet which exploded when a waiter tried to open it.
For the last two months, there has been a growing buzz of an impending terror attack, especially as India and Pakistan were getting ready to resume talks that have been suspended since the Mumbai carnage. Now there is a debate over the talks supposed to be on February 25 in Delhi.
Investigators from the Army’s bomb disposal squad said it appears that a battery-operated improvised explosive device had been used. ‘‘We have found traces of an explosive,’’ said M Z Ansari, an official. The impact was such that the walls of the bakery caved in. Body parts of some of the dead were found strewn on the North Main Road and near the O Hotel, a few metres from the bakery.
‘‘The dead include some foreigners but we are yet to establish their nationality,’’ minister of state for home Ramesh Bagwe said. The injured suffered burns and fractures, said doctors at Sassoon hospital.
Chabad House in Mumbai which was attacked on 26/11 had been recced by Headley, just as he had recced the one in Pune. Headley had stayed at the Surya Villa hotel in Koregaon, which is close to the blast site.
In Delhi, Pillai called an emergency meeting of security officials and instructed all state capitals to be put on high alert. A team also began interrogation of the Batla House terror suspect, Shahzad Ahmad, to find out if he had any information about an attack in Pune.
The Centre immediately moved in to rush a forensic team to Pune. “It is most probably a terror attack. We are sending a forensic team of CBI and personnel of National Investigative Agency,” said Union home secretary G K Pillai.The chief minister announced an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh for the kin of those killed and Rs 50,000 for those injured.
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Posted by Starwin on 13th February, 2010
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