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PUNE, India: A deadly bomb blast in western India threw a cloud Sunday over the scheduled resumption of India-Pakistan peace talks that were suspended in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The blast, which killed nine people late Saturday in a packed restaurant frequented by students and foreigners in the city of Pune, was the first major attack on Indian soil since Mumbai.
An Italian national and an Iranian were among the dead. Twelve of the 60 people injured were foreigners, police said.
The timing was particularly sensitive, coming a day after India and Pakistan agreed to resume official talks after a 14-month hiatus. An initial meeting between their foreign secretaries has been scheduled for February 25.
India broke off all dialogue after the Mumbai attacks, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram described Saturday's blast as a "significant terrorist incident" but refused to speculate on who was responsible or what impact, if any, it might have on talks with Islamabad.
"Those are matters we will consider in Delhi. We are ruling out nothing. We are ruling in nothing," he said after visiting the blast site.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bombing.
"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."
India admitted major intelligence failings after Mumbai, but Chidambaram denied that was the case in Pune, describing it as an "insidious attack with a bomb planted in a soft target".
All Indian states and airports were put on heightened alert and security was also stepped up for the ongoing cricket tour by South Africa.
Several media reports cited Intelligence Bureau sources as saying the blast bore the hallmarks of the Indian Mujahideen, a militant group that claimed responsibility for a series of bomb blasts in September 2008 in New Delhi.
The main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the attack underscored fears that the government had acted rashly in agreeing to resume talks with Pakistan.
"What has happened in Pune is a grim reminder about the fragility of our security system, and the adventurous track that we are walking," said senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
"The whole nation is wondering today as to what has changed that we decided to change our diplomatic position. When terror threatens India, then not talking is also a legitimate diplomatic option."
Saturday's bomb, apparently left under a table in a backpack, exploded in the German Bakery - a popular eatery in central Pune - at about 7:30 pm (1400 GMT).
No arrests have been made and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for swift, coordinated action "so that the culprits responsible for this heinous act are identified and brought to justice" quickly, his office said.
An unnamed waiter told the NDTV 24x7 news channel that he had alerted his manager after seeing an unaccompanied bag.
"My employer told me to go find out who it belonged to. While I was on my way, someone outside asked for water. It was while I was getting the bottles that the bomb went off," he said. "The men and women sitting there all died."
Another eyewitness described a scene of carnage.
"There is no German Bakery anymore," he said "There were bodies everywhere."
Pune, a key education hub with a growing IT industry, is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Mumbai and the blast carried echoes of the 2008 attack there by 10 Islamist gunmen in which 166 people were killed.
The German Bakery is only 200 yards (180 metres) from an ashram, or religious retreat, run by the Swiss-based group Osho International.
David Headley, a US-Pakistani national awaiting trial in the United States for allegedly scouting out possible targets in the Mumbai attacks, is believed to have stayed in the ashram on a trip to Pune.
The restaurant was also close to a Jewish cultural and religious centre run by the orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement whose members were targeted in the Mumbai attacks.
"Chabad House was surveyed by David Headley," said Chidambaram. "It's premature to say whether this particular incident is related to that."
- AFP/yb
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