The Pune blast was not the result of any intelligence failure but an 'insidious' planting of a bomb in a 'soft' target establishment,Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said. After a visit to the blast site here and meeting the injured in hospitals,he made it clear that the area of Koregaon Park,housing Jewish Chabad House and Osho Ashram,had been sensitised by police since it was on the radar of terrorists but it was difficult to provide 24/7 security to all soft targets. Chidambaram said such establishments have to themselves adopt security measures since it was not possible for police to check every person,bag or place at all times. "There is no intelligence failure,but please remember this is not an overt attack by gunmen. This is an insidious bomb that had been planted in what appears to be a backpack," the Home Minister said. Terming Osho Ashram and the Chabad House as "hard targets",he said,"But apart from hard targets,there are soft targets.All these (the German bakery and an Italian restaurant nearby) are soft targets where foreigners and Indians congregate especially during the peak hours." The Home Minister said the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has taken over the case and constituted teams to investigate last night's blast that left nine people dead and 57 injured. He announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to the families of those killed in the attack. The improvised explosive device,kept in a packet outside the kitchen of the German bakery,exploded at around 7.30 pm when a waiter attempted to open it. Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said in Delhi that none of those killed was a foreigner.
