By ASHOK SHARMA
Associated Press Writer
NEW DELHI – An apparent bomb tore through a crowded bakery popular with foreigners in western India, killing at least nine people and wounding 53 near a famed meditation center.
The blast Saturday in the city of Pune, 125 miles southeast of Mumbai, threatened to damage new efforts to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan, with Hindu nationalist leaders already placing the blame for the explosion at India’s Muslim neighbor.
Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said the 7:30 p.m. explosion at the German Bakery, near the Osho Ashram, a renowned meditation center, was likely caused by a bomb and it killed at least eight people. If confirmed, it would be the country’s first terror attack since the Mumbai rampage in 2008.