PUNE, India (Reuters) – A bomb ripped through a packed restaurant in the Indian city of Pune yesterday, killing at least eight people including one foreigner in the country’s first big attack since the 2008 Mumbai massacre.
The explosion comes only a day after India and Pakistan agreed to meet for high-level talks in New Delhi on Feb. 25. New Delhi suspended a four-year-old peace process with Islamabad after the Mumbai attacks, blamed on Pakistani-based militants.
Police said the bomb was hidden in a bag left in the German Bakery restaurant, a favourite of Jewish and European visitors, when it was full of tourists on Saturday evening.
“We heard a big noise and we all rushed out. The impact was so much that there were tiny body parts everywhere,” said Vinod Dhale, an employee at the bakery.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which also wounded 32 people. But any sign of Pakistani involvement would worsen relations between the two nuclear rivals and further destabilise a region overshadowed by war in Afghanistan.
“This is a terrorist attack on India,” said Chagan Bhujbal, deputy chief minister of the western state of Maharashtra, which is home to both Pune and Mumbai. But officials have not blamed any group and said more investigations are needed.
Debris was strewn all around the bakery, located near an ashram or religious retreat which is also frequented by foreigners, and a Jewish centre. The impact of the blast knocked the bakery’s sign off, blew out windows and left a large crater inside the restaurant.
“It (the bomb) was under one of the tables … We transferred lots of people to the ambulances … there is no German bakery any more,” one foreigner, short of breath and resting against a wall, told local CNN-IBN television.
Police first said that four foreigners were killed but later the state government officials revised this one.
Pune, a few hours’ drive from Mumbai, is a technology, educational and real estate hub popular with foreign students.
India put all its airports and railway stations on high alert after the blast and extra security was given to South African and Indian cricket teams playing in the country.
