Valiant_Soul
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I am starting this thread on the same topic, please maintain emotional balance so we can read and write appropriate information and discussion on the issue.
Blast In Pune Kills 9, Injures Atleast 45
Blast In Pune Kills 9, Injures Atleast 45
Terror struck Pune tonight as a powerful bomb ripped apart a popular bakery near a Jewish prayer house, killing nine people, including five women and a foreigner, and injuring 45 in the first major attack since 26/11 carnage.
The improvised explosive device, kept in an unattended packet outside the kitchen of the German bakery, exploded at around 7.30 pm when a waiter attempted to open it.
"It is most probably a terror attack. Forensic experts of CBI and team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials are being airlifted to Pune to assist the state police in the investigations," Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said.
The German bakery is a favourite food joint for foreigners, located close to Osho Ashram which had been surveyed by Pakistani-origin American David Coleman Headley, a Lashkar-e Taiba operative.
Pune's Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh said nine people were killed in the blast, five of them women, and 45 injured.
Quoting information from the state government, Pillai told mediapersons in New Delhi that one each of the killed and the injured are foreigners said but could not give the nationality.
The rest, he said, were believed to be Indians but the situation could change.
U K Bansal, Special Secretary in Union Home Ministry, said four of the injured were foreigners.
Asked whether Pakistani hand was suspected behind the attack, Pillai said he could not say anything till forensic examination was over.
Home Minister P Chidambaram, who is in Tamil Nadu, will visit Pune tomorrow. He is closely monitoring the situation and the position is being reviewed periodically.
The Home Ministry has issued an alert across the country asking people not to open any unattended object and to inform the police if they find any suspicious object.
Pillai said the Union Home Ministry had issued an advisory to Maharashtra government informing it that the Osho Ashram was one of the sites surveyed by Headley.
Headley, who was arrested by FBI at Chicago airport last year when he proceeding to board a flight to Pakistan, had visited a number of places in India, including the Mumbai terror attack targets.
The site of this evening's blast, that destroyed the bakery, was littered with severed limbs and pools of blood. A number of victims were charred beyond recognition, making it difficult for authorities to ascertain their identity.
Pune's Additional Commissioner of Police Prabhat Kumar said "it is a suspected terror attack and we are trying to find out the exact device used in the incident".
The injured are being treated in three city hospitals with some of them reportedly in a serious condition, hospital sources said.
A team of forensic experts are busy investigating nature of the explosives used in the blast.
According to a local corporator three to four victims died on the spot and there was a possibility of some foreign nationals being among the injured.
The impact of the blast was so great that a rickshsaw passing the bakery at that time too suffered damages.
Maharashtra on high-alert
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said it was yet to be established as to what was the cause of the blast. He said he had talked to the Police Commissioner who told him that unless they examined the evidence on the scene of the blast they cannot come to any conclusion.
He said initially it was thought to be a cylinder blast. Forensic experts are there at the site and the exact cause was yet to be ascertained, Chavan added.
"I was travelling by an autorickshaw. I heard a loud explosion and the ground shook", said Santosh, one of the injured in the blast.
An eyewitness said there was a loud bang which shook the entire area and "we saw a fire".
The state police has been asked to remain on "high alert", a senior police official told PTI.
The government will pay Rs one lakh to the kin of each victim of the blast and Rs 50,000 each to those injured, an official said.
No specific intelligence
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chagan Bhujbal said that while the state had received "a lot of inputs" from intelligence agencies, none of them was specific.
"We are receiving a lot of inputs from intelligence agencies. But it does not say where it will happen, when it will happen or who will do it. We don't have such details," he said.
He was responding to a question whether the state had received prior reports about possibility of terror strike in the state.
Condemning the terror strike, he said the police was doing its best to secure people.
Alert sounded in UP
"Following information regarding a terror blast at a popular bakery in Pune this evening, an alert has been sounded across the state," Additional Director General of Police (law and order) Brij Lal said in Lucknow
He said that all the district police chiefs have been asked to maintain a special vigil at important places including markets, railway and bus stations and undertake intensive checking at all places.
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