New Delhi/ Pune, (DMA Newsdesk): As the toll in Saturday’s Pune blast rose to 10 on Tuesday and the police detained four persons for questioning, the office of a leading Indian daily in Islamabad got a call from a little-known terror outfit claiming it had carried out the attack.

A person identifying himself as Abu Jindal called The Hindu’s office, saying he was the spokesman of a terror outfit, Laskhar-e-Tayyeba Al Alami, and claimed the group had carried out the strike because of India’s “refusal” to discuss Kashmir in upcoming talks with Pakistan and because India was a US ally.

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

The call was made from a number with an area code which is common to Pakistan's Waziristan tribal area and the Bannu district of its North-West Frontier Province. When the correspondent concerned tried to call back the number, she got the recorded response that the number was temporarily out of service.

Authorities here were yet to make a determination, but some investigators suspect that the call could be a red herring to distract attention from the perpetrators in view of the growing belief among the intelligence community here that the Pune attack was the handiwork of Indian Mujahideen who were under pressure from their Islamabad-based patrons belonging to Lashkar to break the 14-month lull in their terror campaign. An anxiety to organise an alibi for ISI is seen as the other possible reason for the sudden emergence of LeT `International'.

The reason cited by Jindal — India's refusal to put J&K on the negotiating table — will convince few here since Lashkar wants to annex J&K along with territories belonging to the erstwhile Muslim rulers of Hyderabad and Junagadh, and has never believed in negotiation.

Also, while divisions had surfaced among Lashkar brass when Hafeez Saeed took the widow of a terrorist killed in J&K, decades younger to him, as his wife, there are no fresh reports of serious dissension.

The so-called Indian Mujahideen Kashmir claimed responsibility through a text message sent to some media houses.

Abu Jindal gave India's "ittehad (alliance)" with America as the other justification for the blast. "We will wage war against any ally of America, whether it is India or Pakistan," the correspondent of the Indian newspaper quoted Jindal as saying.


“These are the only two reasons. Joh bhi America ka ittehad hoga, hum uskey khilaf jang ladengey, chahey woh India ho ya Pakistan (we will wage war against any ally of America, whether it is India or Pakistan),” Jindal said.

The man said he was calling from Miranshah in North Waziristan. The telephone number had an area code of Waziristan in the North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan, according to the scribe.

When she tried calling the number, a recorded voice message said the telephone was temporarily not in use.


Jindal said the group had split from the Lashkar-e-Taiba because it took orders from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

There were no more details about the group but the caller told the Indian scribe that the Pune attack was carried out with the help of its "sources" in India.

Ten people, including three foreigners, were killed and 60 injured in Saturday evening's blast at Pune's German Bakery, popular with youngsters and foreigners. The explosive was kept in a backpack under a table and went off when a waiter tried to open it.


Jehadi leaders and militant commanders had vowed to carry out attacks in India when they spoke in rallies organised in Pakistan to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day by the Jamaat-ud-Daawah, a frontal outfit of the Lashkar.

LeT chief Hafiz Saeed had said the only solution to problems between India and Pakistan was the "liberation" of Jammu and Kashmir. The group had another option of launching a pan-India jehad, he threatened.

A similar meeting of militant groups in Pakistan-administered Kashmir Feb 4 also called for the independence of Kashmir.

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