| Text Size | + | - |
| News |
At least 9 dead in blast at India bakery popular with tourists
The explosion took place a little after 7 p.m. at the German Bakery in Koregaon Park, an upscale Pune neighborhood near the Osho Ashram. The ashram, a spiritual center with many Western followers, was one of the locations canvassed as a potential target by David Coleman Headley, who is now on trial in Chicago on charges of plotting terrorist acts. Headley had reportedly stayed in a hotel near the ashram. Eyewitnesses told reporters on the scene that there was an unidentified bag at the bakery, which is also near a Chabad House, an Orthodox Jewish outreach center similar to the one targeted in the Mumbai siege. "We could hear the blast. Thank God we are fine," Rabbi Betzalel Kupchik of Chabad said in a telephone interview, adding that a group at the center felt the explosion just after gathering for prayer to mark the end of the Sabbath. "We will continue our work here. We can't back down." Federal Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said that one foreigner was among the dead and that investigators are trying to determine the nationalities of all the victims. Pillai said that the explosion was likely an act of terrorism and said a team from the National Investigation Agency was en route. Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh put the death toll at nine, according to the Press Trust of India. The bombing came a day after Pakistan agreed to resume high-level talks with India, the first such dialogue between the nuclear-armed powers since relations were frozen after the Mumbai massacre. The United States has urged the two nations to restart talks in hopes that improved relations will help stabilize the region, especially in Afghanistan, where India and Pakistan have been competing for influence. In 2008, a wave of bombings struck markets in Indian cities, killing more than 100 people. Police blamed most of those attacks on homegrown Muslim militants, although some Hindu militants were also suspected of carrying out several attacks. India blames a Pakistan-based militant group for the Mumbai attacks. Shahzad Ahmad, a suspect in bombings in New Delhi that year who was arrested last week, had reportedly told Delhi police that a cell of the Islamist group Indian Mujaheddin was operating in Pune, according to an intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"Ahmad said that the group wanted to sabotage India's hosting of the Commonwealth Games. By targeting foreigners, they want to create an environment of fear," the official said. Pune, which is about 60 miles southeast of Mumbai, is a leafy cosmopolitan city known for its corporate office parks and outsourcing campuses for software and call-center services. Suresh Kalmadi, a member of parliament from Pune, said in a phone interview that the German Bakery was a very old establishment. "All the foreigners keep going there all the time," he said. "I am just appealing to the citizens to remain alert, but calm." Srikant Hiwale, 70, a Pune resident also reached by phone, said that at first the blast sounded like firecrackers at a marriage procession. "Then a relative called me and asked me to turn on the TV," he said. "I feel very scared now. No security. Pune is supposed to be a very peaceful, calm area." Television footage showed a crater-sized hole at the front of the bakery, where the blast had knocked off the roof and shattered windows in nearby shops. Local media reports said the explosion may have detonated several nearby gas cylinders, amplifying the damage. The bombing was unlikely to affect the talks between India and Pakistan scheduled for Feb. 25, said Vikram Sood, a former head of the Research and Analysis Wing, the Indian intelligence agency also known as RAW. "The talks are likely to go on," Sood said. "Terrorism is something India has to live with." |
NEW DELHI -- A powerful blast at a popular bakery frequented by tourists killed at least nine people and injured 53 in the western Indian city of Pune on Saturday, the first attack to apparently target foreigners since the deadly 2008 siege of Mumbai.