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A man looks at the site of an explosion outside a German Bakery close to the Osho Ashram in Pune, India. Image Credit: AP

Pune: Indian investigators examined security camera footage on Monday as they tried to identify who planted a deadly bomb in a bakery popular with foreigners.

Officials said one or two people posing as customers left a backpack containing a bomb in the German Bakery. In addition to the nine deaths, 60 people were wounded.

While the restaurant did not have security cameras, police were examining video shot by cameras installed at a hotel across the street, police said.

Explosives hidden in an abandoned rucksack under a table are thought to have been triggered remotely.

On Monday, police showed the footage to bakery workers who had spotted the abandoned backpack before it exploded, a police officer said, speaking on condition of because he was not authorised to talk to reporters about an ongoing investigation.

The bombing at the popular German Bakery eatery in Pune raised questions over its impact on talks between India and Pakistan.

Security forces have been put on high alert at airports, train stations and markets across India, and Hindu nationalists have blamed Pakistan and demanded the talks be canceled.

Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram has declined to speculate on who was responsible but said the government was "pursuing the case of access to David Headley" as he stayed at the nearby Osho Ashram on a previous visit to Pune. Headley denies involvement.

Officials said David Headley had cased the Osho Ashram, a meditation retreat near the German Bakery, and the Chabad Jewish center.

Washington has been sharing intelligence with Indian agencies, but so far has not allowed them to meet with Headley.

The US charges say Headley had attended militant training camps in Pakistan and conspired with Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba to conduct surveillance in Mumbai before the November 2008 terror attacks that killed 166 people.

Editorial: India-Pakistan talks must go on as scheduled

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for swift, coordinated action "so that the culprits responsible for this heinous act are identified and brought to justice" quickly.

Pune police commissioner Satyapal Singh said: "We are 100 per cent confident of solving the case soon. Various agencies are investigating the matter."

He refused to comment on claims that the Indian Mujahideen, a group that claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in New Delhi in 2008, could be behind the attack.

The Times of India reported on Monday that Pakistan-based Islamists "could well be trying to open up a conflict zone on Pakistan's eastern front, which would deflect attention from them".

The bombing came just a day after New Delhi and Islamabad agreed to resume official talks.

India's main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party said the attack underscored fears that the government had acted rashly in agreeing to resume talks.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said Pune was "a grim reminder about the fragility of our security system, and the adventurous track that we are walking."

India says it will wait for the findings of an investigation into this weekend's bakery bombing before responding to Hindu nationalists' demands to cancel upcoming peace talks with Pakistan.

Saturday's blast, which killed nine people in a packed restaurant frequented by students and foreigners in the western city of Pune, was the first major attack in India since the 2008 Mumbai massacre.

An Italian woman and an Iranian man were among those killed. The 12 foreigners among the 60 people injured included Iranians, Yemenis, Sudanese, Nepalis, a Taiwanese and a German, Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh told reporters.

Hindu nationalist leaders on Sunday blamed the attack on Pakistan and demanded the government call off the talks, scheduled for February 25 in New Delhi.

But Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said he would wait for the forensic experts' report on the bombing before commenting on the opposition demand. India broke off all dialogue after the Mumbai attacks, which they blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram described Saturday's blast as a "significant terrorist incident" but refused to speculate on who was responsible or what impact, if any, it might have on talks with Islamabad.

Pakistani condemnation

"Those are matters we will consider in Delhi. We are ruling out nothing. We are ruling in nothing," he said after visiting the blast site.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bombing.

"We condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We want the region to be free from this menace. We want to have good relations with India. We want talks to be meaningful."

India admitted major intelligence failings after Mumbai, but Chidambaram denied that was the case in Pune.

High alert

All Indian states and airports were put on heightened alert and security was also stepped up for the cricket tour by South Africa.

Several media reports cited Intelligence Bureau sources as saying the blast bore the hallmarks of the Indian Mujahideen.

The main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the attack underscored fears that the government had acted rashly in agreeing to resume talks with Pakistan.

"What has happened in Pune is a grim reminder about the fragility of our security system, and the adventurous track that we are walking," said senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

No arrests have been made and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for swift, coordinated action "so that the culprits responsible for this heinous act are identified and brought to justice" quickly, his office said.

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