One week before a bomb went off in Pune’s German Bakery, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Pakistan had warned of the city being a potential target.
Addressing a rally in the Pakistani capital on February 5, Abdur Rehman Makki, deputy to JuD leader Hafiz Saeed said that at one time, jihadis were interested only in the liberation of Kashmir but the water issue had ensured that “Delhi, Pune and Kanpur” were all fair targets.
His remarks were reported by The Hindu’ s Islamabad correspondent and published in this newspaper the next day. The JuD is the new name of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is a banned organisation in Pakistan.
“Whenever our jihad in Kashmir nears success, India becomes ready for talks,” Makki told his audience. “But what is this dialogue all about? [the former President Pervez] Musharraf tried dialogue for eight years. What did he get? What did Pakistan get? A ban on Lashkar-e-Taiba, while the Shiv Sena is allowed to go free,” he said.
