Bomb kills 9, wounds 57 at bakery popular with foreigners; 1st attack since Mumbai massacre

Bomb kills 9 in India, threatening Pakistan talks

NEW DELHI — A bomb in a crowded bakery popular with foreigners killed nine people and wounded 57 in western India, prompting a call by Hindu nationalists Sunday to cancel peace talks with India’s rival Pakistan.

The explosion, caused by a bomb left in an unattended bag, was the first major terrorist attack in India since the 2008 Mumbai massacre.

The blast Saturday night ripped open the German Bakery in the city of Pune, 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Mumbai. Thick patches of blood and severed limbs littered the popular hangout, which is also close to a meditation retreat and a Jewish center officials say were previously scouted by a terrorist suspect now held in the U.S.

“I came running to the bakery after hearing the explosion. I found people lying all over the place,” said Abba More, who lives nearby.

Hindu nationalist leaders blamed the attack on Pakistan and demanded that India’s government call off next week’s official-level talks between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

One foreigner was among the dead, but his nationality was not immediately known, Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said, adding the three victims identified so far were Indians.

Pillai also said four Iranians, two Sudanese, one Taiwanese, one German and two Nepalese were among the wounded.

Six people died at the scene and three later succumbed to injuries at hospitals, he said. Of the 57 wounded, 19 were released from medical facilities.

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram visited the bakery Sunday and also visited the wounded in hospitals. He told reporters forensic experts were trying to determine what explosives were used and how the bomb was triggered.

Security forces were put on high alert Sunday at airports, train stations and markets across the country.

The blast occurred at 7:30 p.m. Saturday after one or two people acting as customers left a backpack with a bomb inside behind, officials said.

“It appears that an unattended package was noticed in the bakery by one of the waiters who apparently attempted to open the package when the blast took place,” Pillai told reporters.

The bakery is about 200 yards (meters) from the Osho Ashram, a renowned meditation center that Pillai said had been surveyed by David Headley, who is facing charges in Chicago for allegedly scouting targets for the Mumbai attack.

Chidambaram told reporters that Headley had also observed the Chabad Jewish center near the bakery in Pune.

“This particular area has been on the radar (of terrorists) for quite some time,” Chidambaram said. “Police were sensitized that Chabad House was a target, so was the Osho Ashram.”

The bombing was the first major terrorist strike in India since 10 Pakistan-based gunmen rampaged through hotels and a train station in the financial hub of Mumbai for 60 hours in November 2008, killing 166 people.

It came as ties between India and archrival Pakistan appeared to be warming. The two countries agreed to hold talks in New Delhi on Feb. 25, their first formal negotiations since the Mumbai attacks.

Asked whether the explosion was linked to the India-Pakistan talks, Pillai said: “Forensic investigations have just begun. Until they are completed, we will not know who is (involved).”

But Gopinath Munde, a senior Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party leader, asserted, “This again is an attack from Pakistan.”

Prakash Jawadekar, a party spokesman, said the government should reconsider its decision to hold talks with Pakistan. “Terror and talks cannot go together,” he said.