A bomb ripped through a restaurant popular with tourists in the western Indian city of Pune late on Saturday, killing nine people and casting a shadow over the resumption of Indo-Pakistan peace talks.
Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai said earlier reports that a foreigner was among the dead had yet to be confirmed, but added that four Iranians, two Sudanese, one Taiwanese, one German and two Nepalese were among 57 people injured.
It was the first major attack on Indian soil since the November 2008 Mumbai massacre — blamed on the banned, Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba — which prompted New Delhi to suspend dialogue with Islamabad.
The South Asian rivals had agreed just last week to resume talks, and the Pune blast triggered immediate opposition calls for that decision to be reviewed.
“What was being targeted was a soft target where both foreigners and Indians, especially young people, congregate,” India’s Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters on Sunday after visiting the blast site and the wounded in hospital.
The bomb, apparently left under a table in a backpack, went off in the German Bakery — a popular eatery in the Koregaon Park area of the city — at about 7.30 pm local time (2pm GMT).
An unnamed waiter, injured in the blast, told the NDTV 24×7 news channel from his hospital bed that he alerted his manager after seeing an unaccompanied red and black bag.
“My employer told me to go find out who it belonged to. While I was on my way, someone outside asked for water. It was while I was getting the bottles that the bomb went off,” he said.
“The men and women sitting there all died,” he added.
‘There were bodies everywhere’
Another eyewitness described a scene of carnage, with body parts littered around the immediate site of the blast.
“There is no German Bakery anymore,” he said.
“There were bodies everywhere. We tried to help carry them into the ambulances.”
All Indian states have been put on high alert, while the Telegraph newspaper in the eastern city of Kolkata said security would be increased for Sunday’s India-South Africa Test match.
Pune, a key education hub with a growing IT industry, is about 100km south-east of Mumbai and the blast carried echoes of the deadly 2008 attack on India’s financial capital by 10 Islamist gunmen, in which 166 people were killed.
The German Bakery is only 183m from an ashram, or religious retreat, specialising in meditation courses run by a Swiss-based firm Osho International.
David Headley, a United States-Pakistani national awaiting trial in the United States for allegedly scouting out possible targets in the Mumbai attacks, is believed to have stayed in the ashram on a trip to Pune, the government said.
Headley (49) has pleaded not guilty to 12 terrorism-related charges and remains in custody in Chicago.
‘We are ruling out nothing’
The bakery was also close to Chabad House, a Jewish cultural and religious centre run by the orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement whose members were targeted in the Mumbai attacks.
“Chabad House was surveyed by David Headley,” said Chidambaram.
“It’s premature to say whether this particular incident is related to that.
“We will have to wait for the investigation to find out who was behind it … We are ruling out nothing. We are ruling in nothing.”
Prakash Jawadekar, a spokesperson for the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, said the government should now reconsider the resumption of talks with Pakistan, which has been scheduled for February 25.
“Terror and talks cannot go together” Jawadekar told reporters after visiting the blast site in Pune.
Chronology of attacks
2003
March: Eleven people killed in a bomb attack aboard a commuter train in Mumbai.
2004
August: Six people killed in two car bomb blasts in Mumbai.
2005
October: Three powerful bombs explode in busy New Delhi markets a day before an annual Hindu festival, killing 62 shoppers and leaving hundreds injured.
2006
March: Blasts in a train station and a temple in Varanasi, Hinduism’s holiest city, leave 20 people dead, mostly devotees.
July: A series of seven high-powered blasts on suburban trains in India’s business capital Mumbai kill 187 commuters and leave 800 injured. The attacks prompt India to freeze peace talks with Pakistan.
September: Thirty-eight people killed and more than 100 injured in three nearly simultaneous blasts, including one in a mosque, in the town of Malegaon in Maharashtra state.
2007
February: Attackers fire-bomb the Pakistan-bound Friendship Express passenger train, killing 66 passengers, mostly Pakistanis.
May: Eleven killed, 15 injured in blast at 17th century Mecca mosque in Hyderabad. Five more die when police fire at Muslim protesters.
August: At least 40 people killed and more than 50 others injured as two bombs rock a crowded outdoor auditorium and a popular eatery in the southern city of Hyderabad.
October: Two die in a low-intensity explosion in the Ajmer Sharif shrine during Ramadan in the northern town of Ajmer. The Islamic shrine is equally popular among Hindus and Muslims of India and Pakistan.
November: At least 13 people die in bombings outside court buildings in three cities in the north state of Uttar Pradesh.
2008
May: Eight serial blasts tear through the northern Indian tourist city of Jaipur, killing 65 and injuring 150. A group calling itself the “Indian Mujahideen” claims responsibility.
July 26: Eight bombs go off in the high-tech southern Indian city of Bangalore, leaving one dead and seven wounded. Indian Mujahideen claims to have struck again.
July 27: A string of 16 or more bombs hit the communally-tense western city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, killing 45 and injuring over 160. Indian Mujahideen sent a claim before the blasts.
September 13: A series of bomb blasts rock New Delhi, killing 22 and injuring 98 in busy, upmarket shopping areas of the Indian capital. Indian Mujahideen again claims responsibility.
October 30: A dozen bomb blasts rip through Guwahati, the main city of north-eastern Assam state, killing at least 71 people and injuring more than 300.
November 26-29: Ten gunmen, armed with explosive devices, launch a coordinated attack on various high-profile targets in Mumbai, killing 166 people. India blames the attack on Pakistan-based militants and suspends peace talks with Islamabad – AFP