Well-crafted, evil plan from word go
More than half-a-year later, the blast that occurred at the German Bakery in Pune on February 13 this year and claimed 17 lives and injured 56 people still remains one of the most horrific and tragic events the city has ever seen. The Asian Age provides a blow-by-blow account of the sequence of events that occurred during and after the explosion.
Mirza Himayat Baig, the key accused arrested by the anti-terrorism squad on Tuesday in the Pune blast case had opened a cyber café in Udgir in Latur in 2009 — the Global Internet Café — just as a front to conceal his real activities, the ATS said. “The conspiracy of carrying out a bomb blast somewhere in Pune was hatched in the last week of January this year in a meeting attended by Baig, Mohsin Chaudhary and Yasin Bhatkal. On January 31, Baig went to Pune and conducted a recce in and around the German Bakery,” ATS chief Rakesh Maria said on Wednesday.
According to Mr Maria, on February 3, another meeting was held at the café where the target was finalised. “Chaudhary, who was the one to procure the RDX used in the blast, brought the explosive to the café in a bag on February 7. The bomb was then manufactured between 1 am and 5 am by Baig and Chaudhary, both of whom had undergone extensive training in assembling bombs. The bomb was then placed inside a metal box containing around 2.5 kilograms of RDX,” he said.
Around 4 pm on February 13, Baig and Bhatkal arrived in Pune by bus and then changed several autorickshaws on their way to the bakery.
“They did not take the autorickshaw till the gate of the bakery but got off a little earlier instead and decided to walk the rest of the way,” the officer said.
Baig had told his accomplices that the bakery is frequented by foreign nationals in the evening, and that he had also seen CCTV cameras installed in it. “Baig stood outside the bakery while Yasin wore a cap to conceal his identity from the cameras and ordered a cake,” said the officer. Taking his cake, Yasin sat at a table, and while eating the cake, slid the box surreptitiously under the table, and walked out of the bakery. A short while later, the bomb was remote detonated. After the blast, Baig returned to Udgir in Latur and Yasin left for another place that Baig did not know about.
Interestingly, for the first time, the terrorists used a cellphone alarm to detonate the bomb. “In most cases, a call is made on the cellphone that triggers the explosion, but in this case it was the alarm that triggered the explosion.”
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