Raksha Bhavan on Headley radar

Raksha Bhawan — the residential complex for senior defence officers in the heart of the Capital — was on the radar of the Pakistan-born Lashkar operative, David Coleman Headley.

Raksha Bhawan — the residential complex for senior defence officers in the heart of the Capital — was on the radar of the Pakistan-born Lashkar operative, David Coleman Headley.

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Headley — who had last visited Pune in March 2009 to recce the locality where German Bakery is located — had put Raksha Bhawan on the potential target list of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, a government source said, pointing to information passed on by the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The information was passed on to Delhi in response to questionnaires sent by the home ministry to the FBI.

Languishing in a Chicago jail since October 3 last year, Headley had videographed a number of places in Pune, including the Osho Ashram and National Defence Academy, during his visit to that city in March last year.

FBI shared the information about new sites on the terror radar about a month ago.

Government officials also said that German Bakery, struck by a bomb blast on February 13, was alerted by the Pune police five months ago about a possible threat to the popular eatery.

Pune toll rises to 16

Pune: A Sudanese student, injured in the Pune blast, died at a hospital here on Wednesday, taking the toll to 16.

Anas Elphat Suleman, 21, a science student of Poona College, is the fifth foreigner and second Sudanese student to be killed in the blast that rocked German Backery, a popular eatery in Koregaon Park, on February 13.

The other foreign victims of the Pune blast came from Italy, Iran and Nepal.