NEW DELHI, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Talks between India and Pakistan will go ahead despite the blast by suspected terrorists that killed nine people in an Indian bakery.
The force of the early Saturday evening blast ripped apart the small German-style local bakery and injured nearly 60 people in Pune, a city of nearly 3.5 million people and the second largest city after Mumbai in the western state of Maharashtra.
Pune is 60 miles southeast of Mumbai where a devastating terrorist attack in November 2008 claimed the lives of 166 people and was the reason behind India calling off talks with Pakistan which had been going on for around five years. India blamed the attack on the Lashkar-e-Toiba group in Pakistan.
The bakery was used by many foreigners as well as Indian visitors to the nearby Osho Ashram and was across the street from Chabad House, a center for Jewish travelers. Media reports described the destruction of the ground-floor business, with body parts among debris of concrete, steel and glass scattered across the road outside.
The decision to resume talks, set for Feb. 25 in New Delhi, marks a victory for the approach of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his new National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, a report in the Times of India said. Menon was previously foreign secretary, the Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan and has also served in diplomatic posts in China and Israel.
The Indian government has come around to the view that pulling out of talks because of attacks such as Pune would be counter-productive, the Times of India report noted.
Pakistan's prime minister has also said he is committed to resuming the stalled peace talks with India. "I condemn the incident in Pune," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters in Pakistan.
"We condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We want the region to be free from this menace. We want to have good relations with India. We want talks to be meaningful."
Police said the attack, believed to have been from a bomb in a small backpack or similar tote, could have been coordinated by any number of people that day who had been in the bakery.
No group has claimed responsibility but Indian government officials have said they cannot rule out "a foreign hand" in the attack. Suspicions of a terrorist group involvement were heightened because the blast occurred only a day after the two countries agreed a date for the resumption of talks.
Even though the two countries have set a date for their foreign secretary and entourages to meet, exactly what will be on the agenda remains unclear. Pakistan is said to want the issue of Kashmir's legality to be discussed. India wants the talks to embrace less specific issues and focus on its wider terrorist concerns.
