Pune – Nine Die In First Terror Strike Since Mumbai Attack, Rabbi And Jewish Center Safe

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    Policemen and rescue workers inspect the site of an explosion in German Bakery 100 meters away from the Chabad House in Pune on Saturday. A powerful explosion rocked the bakery killing nine people and injuring more than 45Pune, India – A bomb has ripped through a restaurant popular with tourists in the western Indian city of Pune, killing nine people.

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    According to Pune Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh, who said 45 people had been injured, some of them seriously.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday’s blast, which India’s Home Minister P Chidambaram described as “a significant terrorist incident”. The explosion is now suspected to be an improvised explosive device (IED) using an ammonium nitrate fuel oil mix, with RDX as a booster, police sources said. About 7 kg explosives may have been used.

    “All the evidence points to a deliberate plot,” Chidambaram said.

    The bomb went off in the German Bakery – an established eatery in the Koregaon Park area of the city – at about 7.30pm local time.

    The bakery is 100 meters away from the Chabad House[not officially recognized by NY Chabad Org.], a Jewish cultural and religious centre run by the orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement whose members were targeted in the Mumbai attacks.

    Rabbi Betzalel Kupchik, from Pune Chabad House, told AFP: “Everyone here is okay. We are on the same street. We are some minutes’ walk away. We heard the bomb.”

    Rabbi Kopichik Told Israel Radio that to the best of his knowledge, no Israelis or Jews were in the bakery at the time of the blast, and that a check of local hospitals had yielded no Israeli or Jewish victims. Most of the Israeli tourists who were staying in the area have been located, he said.

    According to Haaretz
    Indian intelligence services say it is highly likely that the bomb was meant for the local Chabad House, It remains unclear whether the coffee shop, a popular tourist spot, was the target for the bombing, because the bomb apparently detonated after a waiter opened a bag left on the premises.

    One possibility being investigated is that the bag was meant to be picked up at the cafe and taken to the Chabad House.
    Police gather at the site of a bomb blast in Pune February 13, 2010 The Chabad house is 100 meters away and was likely the target
    Incidentally, Koregaon Park is one of the spots that was receed by American terror suspect, David Coleman Headley, in 2009 for a future terror attack. Headley had stayed in a hotel opposite the Osho ashram, frequented by foreign tourists.

    However, the real target that Headley seemed to have surveyed, the NIA suspects, was the Chabad House, as part of his recee of Jewish prayer centres across Delhi, Pushkar, Goa, Mumbai and Pune.

    Headley had chosen to stay at hotels close to the Chabad Houses at each or these cities to facilitate his detailed survey of the nooks and crannies of the Israeli centres.

    Headley, has pleaded not guilty to 12 terrorism-related charges and remains in custody in Chicago.

    Photos from the blast below


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    11 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    What a nais!

    von nobale
    von nobale
    14 years ago

    Again why does every one say oh   least not jews…what makes a jew more special more then every one else…they just have diff beleifs a death is a death..waw people are stuck up

    Enough
    Enough
    14 years ago

    Maybe it’s time to call it quits with Yehudim in these dangerous places w/ too many extremists. There is not enough experience in gov’t for protection. This was a neis but last time it wasn’t.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Hodu LAshem Ki LOlam Chasdo! If it was meant for the Chabad House, we mustve done something right that terror affecting our brothers were diverted.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Is his name Rabbi Kopichik or Kupchik?