Pune blast: JuD role not ruled out, govt wants access to Headley

The involvement of the Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JUD) in yesterday's bomb blast in Pune has not been ruled out.

The central government clarified tonight that the JuD's role is also under scrutiny, days after the front of terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) spoke of the western Indian city being a target.

As Investigators pieced together clues to unravel the identities of those behind last night's attack on German Bakery in Koregaon Park, the possibility of execution of terror plans by the LeT at places checked out by Pakistani-American David Headley, a terror suspect currently in the custody of the FBI in connection with the 26/11 attack on Mumbai, is also being looked into.

After visiting the site of the attack in which nine persons were killed, Union home minister P Chidambaram renewed the
demand for access to Headley. Pune was one of the places
Headley had surveyed. The Koregaon Park area, the Chabad House, and Osho Ashram in the vicinity of the targeted bakery were known to have been recced by Headley.

In possibly a joint effort, the involvement of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), which had got LeT help in carrying out some attacks in the country, was also not being ruled out by police.

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 — an Italian woman and an Iranian male student — were among those killed in the first strike since the Mumbai carnage of November 26-28, 2008.

"Seeing that just recently the JuD had made a statement saying that Pune is a fair target, we will have to link one and the other and then think that some of these agencies in Pakistan are behind the [Pune] blast," Union home secretary GK Pillai told a TV channel tonight.

Pillai, however, said it was too early to draw any conclusions.

A high-level meeting convened by Chidambaram analysed the
speech made by JuD leader Hafiz Abdur Rahman Makki at the Kashmir solidarity day conference in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir
on February 4.

In the speech, Makki had spoken about attacks on Indian cities, including Pune.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh reviewed the situation with Chidambaram in New Delhi 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.

Asked if the IM was involved, Pune police commissioner Satyapal Singh said, "We can't say anything right now."

The state police said it had obtained CCTV footage of the front area of German Bakery at the time of the blast.

The closed circuit tv of a five-star hotel 'O' had captured the visuals and the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) had taken possession of the footage, inspector-general of police (law and order) Rashmi Shukla said. The bakery had no CCTVs.

Chidambaram visited the site of the attack after which he dismissed talk of any "intelligence failure" and said the terrorists
had hit a "soft target". Maharasahtra's ATS has formed four teams to investigate the blast.

Chidambaram 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.

He said India must be allowed to interrogate Headley.