'MNIK security needs gave ISI chance to strike'

MUMBAI: The self-styled chairman of All India Anti-Terrorist Front MS Bitta on Wednesday blamed the Maharashtra government saying that an excessive security for the Shah Rukh Khan film My Name Is Khan offered an opportune moment for the ISI to engineer the terror attack in Pune.

“The ISI capitalised on the prevailing situation to strike Pune where security infrastructure was lame,” Mr Bitta, a Congressman, said at a press conference in Pune on Wednesday. Mr Bitta, after visiting the blast victims at a city hospital, said Pune is a big city in India and a leading educational and economic hub and the masterminds of the German Bakery blast had designs to harm that status.

“Beefing up security in Pune after the blast is nothing but a farce. Why the government did not do it earlier in view of the burgeoning proportions of the city,” he asked and blamed politicians for playing “politics over the dead bodies”. Mr Bitta also criticised the Shiv Sena and MNS for their “divisive politics” and said that was precisely what Pakistan wanted. He demanded immediate hanging of Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru involved in the Parliament attack and constitution of anti-terrorist military court to try cases on fasttrack. “Afzal is still evading the noose and Kasab is enjoying mutton biryani from Mumbai police,” he commented.

Meanwhile, in another, but related development, four Kashmiri youths have been taken into custody from Hampi in Karnataka in connection with the bomb blast in Pune that claimed 11 lives. A police team from Pune detained the youths, engaged in selling artefacts, at Virapuram Gadde locality late Tuesday night police sources said on Wednesday.

“A search was on for three more persons in connection with the blast,” said a police official refusing to give any further details.