Pune and its Chabad House figured prominently in reports on the visits to India by David Coleman Headley of the Chicago cell of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, presently in jail in Chicago over his role in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.
Among the targets of interest to Headley in Pune were the local Chabad House, a Jewish cultural-cum-religious centre, which is frequented by Jewish visitors to Pune and the local Rajneesh Ashram frequented by the Western followers of Rajneesh, an Indian spiritual guru, who used to live in the US and was the mentor of some sections of Western youth.
Both these places reconnoitred by Headley were near the German Bakery, but neither of them was attacked on February 13, 2010. Instead, the German Bakery was targeted. The IM was reportedly involved in the explosion in the German Bakery.
Pune's educational institutions attract many foreign students from the Arab countries as well as Iran for studying computer science and other subjects. Since there were reportedly facilities for the study of Arabic in Pune, many Indian Muslims also go there.
One has the impression that the investigations made so far by the Maharashtra Police and its Anti-Terrorism Squad as well as by the National Investigation Agency into the activities of terrorism-prone elements in Pune after the arrest of some IT experts of the IM originating from Pune in 2008 have been disjointed focussing mainly on solving the instant cases without trying to see whether there were any linkages with other and past cases.
Now that Pune figures prominently in the terror map of India, it is important to make a co-ordinated assessment of Pune's vulnerability to terrorism of various kinds, including identification of pockets of possible Hindu extremism in the city.
Firefighters examine the site of a bomb blast at the German Bakery restaurant in Pune on February 10, 2010
