Security diversion for MNIK led to Pune blast, says Bitta

The diversion of security to protect the Shah Rukh Khan movie My Name is Khan offered an opportune moment for the Inter-Services-Intelligence to engineer the terror attack in Pune, chairman of All India Anti-Terrorist Front M S Bitta alleged on Wednesday.

"The ISI capitalised on the prevailing situation to strike in Pune where the security infrastructure was lame," he told a press conference in Pune. Bitta who visited 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 did the government not do so earlier in view of the burgeoning proportions of the city ?" he asked and blamed politicians for playing "politics over the dead bodies."

Bitta also criticised the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena 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 fast track.