Role of IM not ruled out in Pune blast

Pune / Press Trust of India
Investigators were today piecing together clues to unravel the identity of terror group behind the Pune bomb blast and the role of Indian Mujahideen (IM) is not being ruled out, as India renewed the demand for access to US terror suspect David Headley.

No arrests have been made in the attack in which officials said the deadly RDX and Ammonium Nitrate were suspected to have been used.

Two foreigners – Italian woman and an Iranian male student – were among the nine persons killed in the first strike since the Mumbai carnage on November 26, 2008.

* Terror strikes Pune; 9 killed, 32 injured
* Headley link to Pune bakery blast
* Pune blast “significant terror” act: PC

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reviewed the situation with Home Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi following the bomb blast at German Bakery yesterday and directed the Centre and the Maharashtra government to take coordinated and effective action to speedily investigate the matter. Chidambaram ruled out any intelligence failure in the attack.

When asked if IM was involved, Pune Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh said, “We can’t say anything right now.”

Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba has previously helped IM carry out some of the terror attacks in India.

Chidambaram visited the site of the attack after which he dismissed any “intelligence failure” and said the terrorists have hit a “soft target”. Maharasahtra’s Anti Terrorism Squad formed four investigating teams to probe the Pune blast.

He held a high-level meeting in Delhi to review the security situation following which a red alert was sounded in cities like Kanpur, Indore and the national capital.

The meeting also analysed the speech made by Hafiz Abdur Rahman Makki, leader of terror outfit amalgam Jamaat-ul-Dawah, at the Kashmir Solidarity Day conference held in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir on February 4 in which he had mentioned about attacks on Indian cities including Pune.

Chidambaram said India must be allowed to have a detailed interrogation of Headley, a Pakistani-American who is is in US custody for suspected involvement in Mumbai terror attack.

No comment on talks

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna declined to comment on the fate of the February 25 Foreign Secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Pune bomb blast.

“I am not going to talk about the talks right now. Let us wait for the report (of the investigative agencies) first,” Krishna told reporters in Chennai when asked whether the Pune blast would have any impact on the dialogue.

Terming the blast as “most tragic and unfortunate”, Krishna said, “We will resist the forces of terrorism resolutely and with firmness and determination.”

He said, “We are well aware that the dark forces of terrorism are against peace and amity between nations. It is most tragic and unfortunate that they have struck again leading to a loss of innocent lives.”