An Italian women and an Iranian student were among the nine persons killed in the blast in the German Bakery in Pune. All the nine persons killed have been identified, City Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh said, adding 60 people were injured in the blast at the bakery located at the posh Koregaon park area.
Addressing media persons after visiting the blast site and the Sassoon Hospital, where the injured have been admitted, Chidambaram said: "Many soft targets need to be monitored. The best police officers have been put on the job and the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad have taken over case."
Fear and rage writ across their faces, the eyewitnesses who helped take the injured and the dead to hospitals after the German bakery blast in Pune, described their horrific experiences.
Of all the homegrown outfits that the Inter-Service Intelligence has created in India, they have found the Indian Mujahideen to be most effective, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
Criminal jurisprudence is based on an interesting saying, "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer." However, that does not seem to apply to the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad. There are several instances to show that the agency has botched up its investigation, the latest being Pune Bakery blast main accused Himayat Baig.
The trial in 2010 conspiracy case to attack Nashik-based Maharashtra Police Academy will now come up for hearing on November 1, special public prosecutor Ajay Misar said.
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil reviewed security situation with senior officials on Wednesday night, following the four low-intensity explosions in Pune.
Soon after a court sentenced Indian Mujahedeen operative Mirza Himayat Baig to death in the German Bakery blast case on Thursday, his family members approached Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, a prominent NGO of minority community, to help in filing an appeal against the sentence in Bombay high court.
The Pune Police appealed to people on Wednesday to inform them about illegal Bangladeshis in the city. Talking to reporters in Pune, Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh said it was likely that Bangladeshi migrants staying illegally in the city were working in the construction and jewellery industry.
People in his hometown claim that Ahmed Siddibappa, alias Yaseen, had joined the Taliban in Afghanistan and had died five years ago. The police, however, are certain that the man is responsible for several terror attacks in India. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
With the arrest of six suspected Indian Mujahideen men the Delhi police have claimed a breakthrough in three terror cases -- the German Bakery blast in Pune, the Jama Masjid shootout and blast in the capital and the Chinnaswamy stadium blasts in Bengaluru.
A team of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, probing the German Bakery blast, has left for Delhi to question the six suspected Indian Mujahideen operatives held recently for alleged involvement in blasts in Pune, Bangalore and Delhi's Jama Masjid.
The four low-intensity explosions Wednesday evening in the busy Junglee Maharaj Road area in Pune that injured one person are the second such incident in Pune since the 2010 German bakery blast. Vicky Nanjappa find out if the blasts were just to create a scare, or something else.
Two weeks after suspected IM module Mohd Qateel Siddiqui was killed in Pune jail, a Delhi court on sought explanation from Maharashtra police as to why he was not produced before it after expiry of his police custody.
The interrogation of Pune blast suspect Abdul Sammad Bhatkal is providing investigating agencies crucial clues about his brother and key Indian Mujahideen operative Yaseen Bhatkal.Sammad, who was arrested at the Mangalore airport on Monday, is being interrogated by teams from the Intelligence Bureau and the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad.Yaseen Bhatkal was at the forefront of orchestrating the Pune blast at German bakery on February 13.
A telephonic conversation between two suspected members of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen gave the security agencies clue about the outlawed wing's alleged involvement in triggering the Pune blast, police sources said on Sunday. Days after the German Bakery blast on February 13, in which 17 persons were killed and over 50 injured, alleged IM operative Salman Ansari's telephonic intercepts suggested that he had received a phone call from someone, believed to be Riyaz Bhatkal
Investigators have found "footprints" of US terror suspect David Headley in the Pune blast and hope to get a breakthrough "very soon" following intensive questioning of some people, mostly locals. Highly placed sources said on Wednesday that the plan of exploding the high-intensity bomb at the German Bakery was executed by some local terror modules with help from outside Maharashtra.
The investigations into the four incidents of terror -- Jama Masjid in New Delhi, 13/7 blasts in Mumbai, the German Bakery in Pune and Chinnaswamy blasts in Bengaluru -- may appear as though they are taking longer than usual to crack.
"Perhaps the person who I think could possibly be the bomb planter may not turn out to be so. But one thing is sure, that the person looked suspicious and I can assure you that he was quite at sea at the bakery for he did not even know if waiters served there at the table or if it was a self-help joint," says Mohsina
Nine months after a powerful bomb exploded at the German Bakery in the posh Koregaon locality in Pune killing 17 people, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Saturday filed its chargesheet against the alleged mastermind of the attack Himayat Baig. Assistant Public Prosecutor for ATS A V Ausekar told judicial magistrate Swarup Bose that the accused had committed heinous crimes against the state of India.
Over a month after suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Mohammed Qateel Siddique was found strangled in a Pune jail, the city's Anti Terrorism Squad on Tuesday filed before a Delhi court its report explaining the sequence of events leading to his death.
A Nashik court remanded to police custody Himayat Baig, prime accused in the Pune German Bakery blast case, and his aide Shaikh Lalbaba Mohammed Hussain alias Bilal.
A Rehman, a senior lawyer, had appeared on behalf of Baig on September 20 before the magistrate hearing the case, ignoring an appeal issued by the Pune Bar Association (PBA) asking fraternity members to refrain from representing the accused in view of the "anti-national" nature of the crime.
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad may invoke the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against the two alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives, one of them a Pune blast suspect, arrested last week.
The cell will focus on the "movements of suspicious persons" in the city and police inspector Sunil Tambe, who is heading the SOW, will also be in charge of the new squad, Assistant Commissioner of Police Anant Shinde said
Nashik has become a crucial centre for terrorists, say sources in Mumbai's Anti-Terrorism Squad, after interrogating the two terror suspects arrested in connection with the German bakery blast. One of the accused admitted that he had conducted a reconnaissance of a few security establishments in the city. Groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba have been trying to set up base in Nashik. One of the reasons is to strengthen their hold over Maharashtra.
Two persons have been arrested from Pune and Nashik by Mumbai's Anti-Terrorism Squad in connection with the German Bakery blast case in Pune that left 16 people dead, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said on Wednesday.
Here is the chronology of major blasts in the country:
The Maharashtra Director General of Police D Sivanandan has admitted that the investigations by the state Anti-Terrorism Squad into the February 13 German Bakery terror attack have gone wrong.
The Maharashtra government on Monday said action would be taken against ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi if he had indicated involvement of Hindu organisations in the Pune German Bakery blast.
The Maharashtra ATS, which is in charge of the investigation being coordinated with various other agencies including NIA, has not come out with any official word on the progress of investigation or identification of any group responsible for the blast, the first terror attack after the 26/11 Mumbai massacre.
The University of Pune, which has a large number of foreign students, is being fortified with enhanced security measures, a fall-out of the blast in German Bakery in the city on February 13. The sprawling campus of the prestigious varsity, with houses a number of key research institutions, may soon have closed-circuit television system and armed guards to stave off any possible threat, sources said.
The global jihadi network is under pressure but it needs a long-term strategy to keep it in control, writes Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The attempts by the Pune police probing the February 13 German Bakery blast to hunt down Riyaz Bhatkal may prove futile, since there is confirmation now that the founder of the Indian Mujahideen is safely tucked in at Karachi.
Notwithstanding the charge sheet filed by ATS holding Himayat Beig as an accused in the Pune blast, which took place on this day last year killing 17 people, including foreigners, the police is yet to answer many queries regarding the blasts including the triggering mechanism and the modus operandi adopted by the perpetrators.
In the brief telephonic conversation, Obama condoled the loss of lives, the Prime Minister's Office said, adding, "The two leaders took the opportunity to review developments in Indo-US relations."
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision to go ahead with the scheduled Indo-Pak meeting after the blast at Pune's German Bakery that has so far claimed 10 lives, is not an easy one for him, with two key ministers of his government opposing the move.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's year-long charmed existence as the home minister has apparently ended, with the tough talking minister suddenly sounding a little vulnerable and looking a little helpless.The lull after the terror attack in Mumbai on November 2008 was broken by the blast in Pune's German Bakery, which claimed nine lives, and the Maoist attack in West Bengal that killed 24 jawans.
Four persons suspected to be having links with Indian Mujahideen were picked up on Tuesday for questioning in connection with the German Bakery blast and the police said it has got "vital" information from CCTV footages. While two of them were from Kudalwadi and Janwadi localities in Pune, two others from Aurangabad were quizzed.
An unknown group called the Laskhar-e-Taiyba Al Alami on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the blast in Pune's German Bakery that killed 9 people and injured many more.A person, calling himself Abu Jindal, called a national daily and claimed to be the spokesperson of the LeT Al Alami (international). Jindal declared that the group had carried out the attack because of 'India's refusal to discuss Kashmir' and 'India's alliance with America'.