Jerusalem/New Delhi - There was still shock in Israel Sunday
four days after the attack on Nariman House, a Jewish religious
centre in the Indian city of Mumbai.
According to Israel radio, three of the nine bodies found in the
centre have not been positively identified,
The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed that Rabbi Gavriel
Holtzberg, who led the ultra-Orthodox Chabad Lubavitch movement in
the Indian commercial capital, and his wife Rivka were among the
dead.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that other
victims identified included Rabbi Arieh Leib Teitelboim, Israeli
citizen Yokheved Orpas, and US citizen Ben-Zion Kruman.
A team of experts from Israel has been sent to Mumbai to aid with
identification of the three remaining bodies. It is thought that the
three could have been Israeli travellers that had little contact with
their families.
Nariman House was targeted by suspected Islamist militants on
Wednesday as part of a series of attacks on Mumbai that killed at
least 183 people.
Azam Amir Kasab, 21, the only terrorist captured by Indian
security agencies after the Mumbai siege said that their mission
specifically targeted Israelis to avenge 'atrocities' against
Palestinians, a Times of India report said Sunday.
Investigators have told the NDTV network that Kasab, a Pakistani
national, had admitted he was a member of the Lashkar-e-Toiba
militant organization headquartered in Pakistan.
Sources also told the Times that Kasab's colleagues killed in the
operation had stayed in the Nariman House earlier.
'They have stayed in the Nariman House on rental basis identifying
themselves as Malaysian students,' a source told the newspaper.
The police were trying to find out how Nariman House rooms were
given to non-Jews. Police also took all the record books for their
investigation.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai tragedy featured prominently in the Israeli
media, with Israeli newspapers carrying bloody pictures of the
Nariman House and descriptions of the condition in which the
sometimes bound victims' bodies were found.
The fate of the late rabbi's two-year-old son Moshe was also of
special concern. The child was rescued at the time of the attacks by
his nanny Sandra. According to media reports, there are now efforts
to bring both Moshe and his nanny back to his parents' family in
Israel.
In reaction to the attack, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
Sunday urged joint action against terrorism, saying her country was
on 'the front line.'
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