Pakistan-based group “Lashkar-e-Taiba al-Almi” claims Indian bombing at Pune.

An Indian man stands behind a no entry sign near the scene of blast in Pune on February 14, 2010. – AFP

Pakistan-based group claims India bombing: report

Wednesday, 17 Feb, 2010||Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1431

NEW DELHI: A previously unknown group that said it had splintered from a larger Pakistan-based outfit has claimed responsibility for a weekend attack in India, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Hindu, a respected Indian newspaper, said it had been contacted by someone claiming to be a spokesman for a group called Lashkar-e-Taiba al-Almi which said it had carried out the bombing.

Police said Wednesday the toll from the blast at the German Bakery restaurant in the western city of Pune had risen to 11, with the number of injured rising to 60 after new victims were discovered in local hospitals.

The latest fatality was a 20-year-old engineering student who died from burns at a hospital in Pune on Tuesday night.

The Hindu said an individual codenamed Abu Jindal rang the paper’s Islamabad correspondent and said the attack was in response to India’s “refusal” to discuss the disputed region of Kashmir, claimed by Pakistan and India, in peace talks due to resume this month.

The caller said Lashkar-e-Taiba al-Almi had split from the larger Lashkar-e-Taiba because the latter “took its orders from Pakistan’s intelligence agency”, The Hindu reported.

The banned Lashkar-e-Taiba is blamed by India for the attacks on Mumbai in November 2008 which killed 166 people and led to a suspension of dialogue between India and Pakistan.

The Pune bombing was the first major attack on Indian soil since the 2008 Mumbai carnage and four men have since been detained by Indian police for questioning.

Foreign secretaries from India and Pakistan are to hold peace talks in New Delhi on February 25.

The Hindu said the call to its correspondent came from an area with a telephone code common to the restive Waziristan tribal area, a stronghold for militants, and the neighbouring volatile Northwest Frontier Province.

The caller said he was ringing from Miramshah in North Waziristan.

Tags: Abu Jindal of Lashkar-e-Taiba al-Almi, German Bakery restaurant, Lashkar-e-Taiba al-Almi, Pune Blast at German Bakery on 13.02.10 claimed 13 dead n 60 wounded, The Hindu, the western city of Pune