Three injured in low-intensity blast in Pune, terror attack not ruled out

Pune: Three persons, including a constable,were injured when an explosive device kept in a motorcycle in the parking lot of a police station went off here today, officials said.

It was a "low intensity" blast and police is probing the case keeping in mind "all possibilities", including a terror angle, Pune Police Commissioner Satish Mathur told reporters.

"We are examining all possibilities," he said when asked if police suspected it to be a terror attack. He said a scooter parked adjacent to the motorbike in which the device was placed too was damaged.

Ball bearings and nails have been recovered from the spot and sent for forensic examination, he said, adding the explosive use in the blast was yet to be identified.

Those wounded, he said, had received minor injuries and included a constable. Only one of them needed hospitalisation, he said.

The Pharaskhana police station is situated in the vicinity of the famous Dagdusheth Ganesh temple, which is said to be on the terrorists' radar for quite some time.

A suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Qateel Siddiqui, named in three terror cases, was alleged to have made an abortive attempt to bomb the Dagdusheth temple in 2010.

The 26-year-old was strangled to death in high-security Yerawada Central Jail here in June 2012. Police have cordoned off the area and appealed to the people not to spread or believe rumours..

Centre refuses to term Pune blast as terror act

The Centre on Thursday declined to term the low-intensity blast in Pune as a terror act, saying it was only a "minor" explosion.

"It was a minor blast. Why do you think it could be a terror act?" Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami told reporters here when asked whether the Pune blast was a terror attack.

The "low-intensity" blast occurred near Pharaskhana Police Station close to the famous Dagdusheth Halwai Temple in the busy Budhwar Peth area.

The city had come on the terrorists' radar for the first tine when 17 people were killed and around 60 injured in a powerful blast at German Bakery, one of Pune's favourite eateries, on 13 February, 2010.

Pune : Security officials at the spot where the explosion took place pic.twitter.com/PUN7wmIGbM

— ANI (@ANI_news) July 10, 2014