Restaurant bomb kills nine in Indian city of Pune

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PUNE, India - A bomb ripped through a restaurant popular with tourists in the western Indian city of Pune on Saturday, killing nine people and casting a shadow over the resumption of Indo-Pakistan peace talks.

At least one foreigner -- believed to be a Taiwanese national -- was among the dead, according to Pune Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh, who said 45 people had been injured, some of them seriously.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which India's Home Minister P. Chidambaram described as "a significant terrorist incident".

"All the evidence points to a deliberate plot," Chidambaram said.

It was the first major attack on Indian soil since the November 2008 Mumbai massacre -- blamed on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group -- which had 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.

The bomb went off in the German Bakery -- an established eatery in the Koregaon Park area of the city -- at about 7:30 pm (1400 GMT).

"It appears that an unattended package was noticed... by one of the waiters who apparently went and attempted to open the package when the blast took place," Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told reporters in New Delhi.

An eyewitness interviewed by the CNN-IBN news channel 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."

Pune is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Mumbai and the blast carried certain echoes of the 2008 attack on India's financial capital by 10 Islamist gunmen that killed 166 people.

The German Bakery is only 200 yards (metres) from an ashram, or religious retreat, specialising in meditation courses run by a Swiss-based firm Osho International.

Pillai noted that David Headley, a US-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.

Headley, 49, has pleaded not guilty to 12 terrorism-related charges and remains in custody in Chicago.

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.

Rabbi Betzalel Kupchik, from Pune Chabad House, told AFP: "Everyone here is OK. We are on the same street. We are some minutes walk away. We heard the bomb."

The Mumbai assault was carried out by 10 Islamist extremists who stormed a number of high profile sites, including two luxury hotels, the city's main railway station and a popular restaurant.

A total of 166 people were killed, including 25 foreigners, and more than 300 others injured in a 60-hour orgy of violence.

The attacks' sole surviving gunman, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, is currently on trial at a high security prison court in Mumbai, charged with a raft of offences, including "waging war against India," murder and attempted murder.

Prakash Jawadekar, a spokesman 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.

- AFP /ls

Mr Milo SG

bad...this is bad

they are rehearsing

the next step in their tactic will be to have "cleanup crews"

these cleanup crews are responsible for finishing off survivors after an attack

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India says Pakistan talks on track despite Pune blast: sources

NEW DELHI : India and Pakistan will resume peace talks as planned, government sources said on Monday, despite a deadly restaurant bombing and questions over whether Islamist militants were involved.

As police scoured security camera footage of Saturday's blast at the German Bakery in Pune, western India, a government source in New Delhi told AFP there was "no change" to a scheduled meeting of Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries on February 25.

It will mark the first official talks between the two South Asian rivals for 14 months.

Another source said the government would refrain from any "knee-jerk reaction," amid calls from the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that the meeting should be called off.

India broke off all official dialogue with Pakistan following the November, 2008 Mumbai attacks which it blamed on the Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Saturday's blast in Pune was the first major attack on Indian soil since then and came just a day after the two sides agreed to the foreign secretaries' meet.

Two foreigners - an Italian woman and an Iranian man - were among the nine people killed. Twelve of the 57 people injured were foreign nationals.

Indian media reports sought to link Saturday's bombing to previous attacks by an India-based Islamist movement, the Indian Mujahideen, fearing sleeper cells were now active and further strikes likely.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for swift action to bring the culprits to justice but police have refused to comment on speculation the blast was the work of the Indian Mujahideen.

The group claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in New Delhi in September 2008 and reports have highlighted similarities between them and the Pune blast.

A bomb hidden in an abandoned rucksack left under a table exploded at about 7.30 pm (1400 GMT) on Saturday while the restaurant was packed with mainly young Indians.

Home Minister P Chidambaram has also refused to speculate on who was responsible.

But on Sunday, he said they were keen to speak to David Coleman Headley, a US-Pakistani national currently awaiting trial in the United States on a string of terror charges.

Headley, 49, is alleged to have scouted possible targets in India for the LeT before the Mumbai attacks. He denies the claims.

Chidambaram said Headley stayed at the Osho Ashram - a religious retreat popular with foreigners - which is a stone's throw from the German Bakery.

A religious and cultural centre run by the orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement is also nearby. A similar centre was one of the targets in the Mumbai attacks.

The Times of India said on Monday that the bombing should be seen in the context of the resumption of the diplomatic talks and a major coalition offensive in southern Afghanistan.

Pakistan-based Islamists "could well be trying to open up a conflict zone on Pakistan's eastern front, which would deflect attention from them," an editorial in the daily said.

India's BJP has said the attack - which triggered heightened security across the country - underscored fears the government had acted rashly in agreeing to resume talks with Pakistan.

Senior party leader Arun Jaitley said Pune was "a grim reminder about the fragility of our security system, and the adventurous track that we are walking.

"The whole nation is wondering today as to what has changed that we decided to change our diplomatic position. When terror threatens India, then not talking is also a legitimate diplomatic option," he said. - AFP/ms

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Four detained in connection with deadly attack in western India

Four people have been taken into custody in connection with a deadly bomb blast at a restaurant in western India at the weekend.

The four were detained as part of the investigation into Saturday's attack on the popular German Bakery restaurant in Pune.

The Press Trust of India said one of the suspects was picked up in Pune.

The other was arrested in the neighbouring industrial township of Pimpri.

Television news channels said the two others were detained in Aurangabad, about 200 kilometres from Pune.

Police said a student who was among the 57 people wounded in the explosion, had become the 10th fatality after he died of his injuries in a local hospital.

Forensic scientists have determined that the bomb, left in an abandoned rucksack, was made from a mixture of RDX high explosives, ammonium nitrate and petrol.

The bombing was the first major strike on Indian soil since the assault on Mumbai in November 2008.

It came just a day after India and Pakistan agreed to resume dialogue with a meeting between their foreign secretaries.

The government has so far refused to confirm media speculation that an India-based Islamist group, the Indian Mujahideen, was responsible for the attack.

--938Live