In a first for the city, Pune was struck by a terrorist attack that killed nine and injured 45 peoplelast night. A few foreigners are among those killed. An explosive left behind in a backpack at the German Bakery in Pune’s Koregaon Park area exploded at around 7.15 pm. The Home Minister P Chidambaram said in a press conference that the city was known to be on the radar of terrorists groups and the city police had been sensitized about it in advance. David Headley, prime accused in plotting the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, had visited the Koregaon Park area known as being a hotspot for foreign tourists to the city. The Lashkar e-Taiba’s involvement is therefore being suspected in the first attack after 26/11. It also casts a shadow on the secretary level talks between India and Pakistan scheduled for Feb 25.
Having born and brought up in Pune, the terror attack was truly a case of terror striking home for me. Incidentally it is only last morning that I returned back to Pune from the US. I have visited and known places and people in the Koregaon Park area. I have enjoyed many delicacies at the German Bakery. Pune – my home, the place I always felt the safest in, the city that thousands throng to for its opportunities and sense of security. To know that terrorists struck here makes things more real than even the attacks in Mumbai did!
