Even as a breakthrough in the Saturday’s blast at the German Bakery in Pune eluded the police, the Maharashtra government on Sunday reviewed the security arrangements in cities such as Nagpur, Aurangabad and Nashik along with Mumbai. It also ordered tightening of security in American and Israeli establishments across the State.
In Pune, Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh told reporters on Sunday: “No one has yet been detained. I also cannot say about any involvement of the Indian Mujahideen at this point.” It was too premature to comment if there was a pattern with the other blasts in the country, he said.
While there was no CCTV camera inside the German Bakery, there is footage of the area outside the bakery, thanks to the cameras installed at an opposite hotel, the Special Inspector General of Police, Law and Order, Rashmi Shukla, told journalists in Mumbai on Sunday.
“There was no CCTV camera in the German Bakery. However, O Hotel, located opposite, had CCTVs, which covered the frontal area of the bakery. The ATS (Anti-Terrorism Squad) has that footage,” Ms. Shukla said.
“An unclaimed bag was found under the table. A waiter was asked to remove the bag. Before he could remove it, the explosion took place. The blast left a hole of six feet by four feet in the bakery wall,” she said.
Of the nine people killed in the blast, two were identified as foreigners — Iranian Saied Abdulkhani (26) and Italian Nadia Macerini (37). While Abdulkhani was a student of the Ferguson College in Pune, Ms. Macerini was visiting the Osho International Meditation Centre, about 200 yards from the German Bakery.
The rest of the casualties were students and employed youths. They were identified as: Ankik Dhar (24) from Kolkata; his sister Anindyee Dhar (19); P. Sindhuri (22) from Bangalore; Vinita Gadani (22) from Mumbai; Shilpa Goenka (23) from Kolkata; Shankar Pansare (40) from Velha taluka in Pune district; and Gokul Nepali (30), a waiter at the German Bakery.
Of the 60 injured (46 men and 14 women), 19 were discharged from hospitals. The injured include 12 foreigners: five from Iran, two each from Sudan and Nepal, and one each from Yemen, Taiwan and Germany.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram visited the blast site in the day. He refuted suggestions that the government did not take intelligence inputs seriously.
He said: “There is no intelligence failure. The State government had taken the advice seriously and the police put in place security measures in the hard targets.”
