NEW DELHI — A powerful blast at a popular bakery frequented by tourists killed at least nine people and injured 57 in the western Indian city of Pune on Saturday, the first attack to apparently target foreigners since the deadly 2008 siege of Mumbai.
The explosion took place a little after 7 p.m. at the German Bakery in Koregaon Park, an upscale neighborhood near the Osho Ashram. The ashram, a spiritual center with many Western followers, was one of the locations canvassed as a potential target by David Coleman Headley, who is now on trial in Chicago for plotting terrorist acts.
Eyewitnesses told reporters on the scene that there was an unidentified bag at the bakery, which is also near a Chabad House, an Orthodox Jewish outreach center similar to the one targeted in the Mumbai siege.
“We could hear the blast. Thank God we are fine,” Rabbi Betzalel Kupchik of Chabad said in a telephone interview. “We will continue our work here. We can’t back down.”
Federal Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said one foreigner was among the dead and investigators are trying to determine the nationalities of the victims. Pillai said the explosion was likely an act of terrorism and said a National Investigation Agency team was en route.
