Unknown Pakistani group claims responsibility for Pune blast NIRUPAMA SUBRAMANIAN

Source: The Hindu

PTIGerman Bakery, the site of the explosion. A Pakistani group known as Laskhar-e-Taiba Al Alami has claimed responsibility for the Bomb blast in Pune

An unknown group calling itself the Laskhar-e-Taiba Al Alami claimed on Tuesday it was behind Saturday’s bomb attack in Pune that killed nine people.

A person who identified himself as Abu Jindal called The Hindu here, described himself as the spokesman of the LeT Al Alami (international), and claimed the group had carried out the attack because of what he said was India’s “refusal” to discuss Kashmir in the forthcoming talks with Pakistan.

The telephone number that showed up on the caller identity carried an area code common to the Waziristan tribal area and Bannu, the adjoining district in the North-West Frontier Province.

When this correspondent tried calling back the number, a recorded voice message said the number was temporarily not in use.

Kashmir jihadists do not believe in India-Pakistan talks on Kashmir and have long said their aim is to seize the State by force from India in order to “liberate” it, which makes the caller’s statement intriguing and difficult to reconcile with the standard jihadist line.

The caller also gave India’s “alliance” with America as another reason for the attack. Asked if there were any other reasons, he said: “These are the only two reasons”.

“Joh bhi America ka ittehad hoga, hum uskey khilaf jang ladengey, chahey who India ho ya Pakistan (we will wage war against any ally of America, whether it is India or Pakistan).”

He said the group had split from the Laskhar-e-Taiba because it took orders from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.

The caller sounded like an educated boy in his late teens or early 20s. He said he was calling from Miramshah in North Waziristan and declined to divulge the name of the group’s leader. Asked how the group had carried out the Pune attack, he said it had its “sources” in India and had activated them to carry out the attack.