Indian intelligent services thwarted a planned terrorist attack against Israelis at the Chabad house in Mumbai.
Two Pakistani suspects were arrested. They intended to carry out the attack in the coming days and were in possession of explosives, a drone and Google images of Nariman House, a five-story building in the Colaba area of South Mumbai.
“The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) found some Google images from the accused of Chabad House located at Colaba. They informed us. Accordingly, we have beefed up the security at Chabad House, which already has very high security. A mock drill was also carried out on Thursday at the center and outside area,” said an officer from the Colaba police station to the Hindustan Times.
The ATS took into custody Mohammad Imran Mohammad Yunus Khan, 23, and Mohammad Yunus Mohammad Yakub Saki, 24, the English-language daily reported on Sunday.
Channel 12 reported on Monday that the “Israeli security system” assisted Indian intelligence services in foiling the planned attack.
The Chabad house was attacked during the November 2008 terrorist rampage across India’s largest city.
Pakistani Islamist terrorists wreaked havoc in Mumbai, killing men, women and children in hotels, a train station and on the streets. One hundred seventy-five people died, including nine terrorists, and more than 300 were wounded, in 12 coordinated attacks.
Two of the attackers held several residents of the Chabad house hostage. Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife,Rivka, who was six months pregnant, were murdered along with four other hostages inside the house.
“They were here for less than five years,” said Rabbi Kozlovsky. “We’ve already been here longer than they were. But what they accomplished in five years, I don’t think I’ll do in 20.”
“Even now, a decade later, it’s impossible to shake the vision of the Chabad House in Mumbai under siege, treated not as a house of prayer and kindness on a nondescript side street in the business capital of India, but as an embassy of the Jewish people to be targeted and destroyed in an act of war,” said JNS.
Produced in association with Jewish News Syndicate
Edited by Judy J. Rotich and Suparba Sil
