The Indian government said today it had little idea who was behind a bomb in a tourist restaurant in western India that killed nine people, an attack that some experts said could be the work of home-grown militants.
The bomb that also wounded 57 in the city of Pune was the country's first big attack since the 2008 Mumbai massacre and appeared to target Indian and foreign tourists. At least one foreigner whose identity had not yet been established was killed.
German Bakery, located close to a Jewish center and a religious retreat frequented by foreigners, was a soft target in an area that had been on the radar of intelligence officials, Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.
"Nothing is ruled out, nothing is ruled in. The investigation is in progress," Chidambaram told reporters.
"There is no intelligence failure. This particular area has been on the radar for quite some time. But this was not an overt attack by a gunman, but an insidious attack with a bomb planted in a soft target."
Indian authorities put airports and railway stations on high alert after the blast and extra security was given to South African and Indian cricket teams playing in the country.
The explosion came a day after India and Pakistan agreed to high-level talks in New Delhi on February 25, suspended after Pakistani militants killed 166 people during a three-day rampage through the financial capital of Mumbai in November 2008.
Any sign of Pakistani involvement in the Pune attack would worsen relations between the two nuclear rivals and further destabilize a region overshadowed by war in Afghanistan.
Pune police had been alerted to the possibility of attacks on Osho ashram and Chabad House, which had also been targeted during the Mumbai attacks, Chidambaram said. But there had been no intelligence input on German Bakery, he said.
Chidambaram said the Pune ashram was one site surveyed by David Headley, arrested in the United States last year and charged with scouting targets for the Mumbai rampage.
India suspects he has links to Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba that is blamed for the Mumbai attacks.