Pune:
Terror suspect David Headley had visited the Jewish centre in Pune, Chabad House, just a short walk from the German Bakery in Pune where nine people have been killed in a blast last evening.
A Lashkar-e-Toiba operative, Headley also stayed at a hotel near the German Bakery in Koregaon Park in 2008-2009 and had twice visited the Osho Ashram located nearby.
(Watch: Pune blast: The Headley connection?)A National Investigative Agency (NIA) probe has revealed that Headley had moved to Pune from Goa to recee the area around Koregaon Park. Though initially it was believed that he wanted to target the foreigners coming to the Osho Ashram, it was later found that he had scouted the area for the Jewish prayer centre in the area.
Chabad House is located on the north main road, road number 32 and was surveyed by Headley, Home Minister P Chidambaram said, adding that the police were sensitised that it was a target. The prayer centre and the Osho ashram were the hard targets and a number of security measures were taken by the police for these, he said.
(Watch: Blast site was on radar for sometime)Questions are now being asked about whether, given that Koregaon Park was on the radar, as Chidambaram said, was enough done to keep the area safe?
Headley had left Pune and gone to Mumbai where he went to the Cuffe Prade area and apparently firmed up some loose ends in targeting the Israel Airways office before flying to Pakistan from the Chatrapati Shivaji airport.
Headley's last visit to India before being arrested by the FBI was in March last year, was to finalise synchronised terror strikes on Jewish houses located in five cities at the instance of the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Talking about a possible Headley link, Chidambaram said on Sunday: "If he is behind the blast we will have to find out. We can't rule out or rule in anything yet."
"Irrespective of what happened in Pune yesterday, Government of India is pursuing the case of access to David Headley but that is tied up in a lot of legal problems. He has been indicted by a grand jury in Chicago. There are number of legal problems there but we have not given up our case that we must be given access to Headley for interrogation.