Four blasts in Pune greet India’s new HM Shinde on first day at work
Four low intensity blasts within a span of 30 minutes rocked Pune on Wednesday evening when newly appointed home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was to visit the city but later cancelled his plan.
The man who was suspected to have carried one of the four bombs that exploded in Pune on Wednesday night and was injured has been identified as a local tailor, the city’s Police Commissioner Gulab Rao Pol said. His name is Patil who is a local resident and working as a tailor in Junglee Maharaj Road, he said. As per leading TV channels from India, “from the low-intensity blasts, we think there is no involvement of terrorist group. There may be other groups which are not related with terrorist activities.”
The police chief when asked by media replied about the possible motive behind the blasts, he said “the intention was to make mischief and create panic in the mind of the public”.
Sources say the material used in the bombs suggests it was a well planned attack. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan also indicated that a timer may have been used.
Between 7:27 pm and 8:15 pm on Wednesday evening, four low-intensity bomb blasts in quick succession shook Pune injuring at least one person. While the first three blasts took place within a radius of one km at the Jungli Maharaj Road, the fourth blast was reported from the Garware Chowk. There was also a fifth bomb which was, however, defused near a McDonalds outlet in the city.
The blasts incidentally came on the night the new incumbent Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde took over and was to attend a function in Pune. “I had to attend the Lokmanya Tilak awards ceremony. I had to go by 6 pm. But it happened near Tilak theatre,” Shinde said. The venue for the function the Home Minister was to attend is close to the spot of the first explosion -the Bal Gandharva Theatre, where the suspected bomber was injured. The blast outside the Mc Donald eatery went off in a dustbin. Just down the road the bombs at the Dena Bank and Garware Bridge were placed on cycles with a bucket of explosives strapped on.
A team of the national investigation agency and the NSG is assisting the Pune police in its investigation. Though the forensic analysis report to ascertain the nature of the explosive is yet to come out, investigators claim that the aim was to trigger panic and not to claim many lives. Both the rights groups and the India Mujahideen are under the scanner of the two-pronged investigation.
