MUMBAI, India [AFP] — People living close to a Jewish prayer centre besieged by Islamist fanatics who murdered its rabbi and his wife fear that if it reopens their Mumbai neighbourhood could once again become a terror target.
Some residents near Nariman House said they would rather the ultra-orthodox Jewish movement that owns the badly damaged building did not return as planned.
Mumbai Neighbourhood Uneasy over Return of Chabad House
MUMBAI, India [AFP] — People living close to a Jewish prayer centre besieged by Islamist fanatics who murdered its rabbi and his wife fear that if it reopens their Mumbai neighbourhood could once again become a terror target.
Some residents near Nariman House said they would rather the ultra-orthodox Jewish movement that owns the badly damaged building did not return as planned.
Others said they would like security to ensure their own safety, as the Jews had been specifically targeted by the militants.
Nariman House, in Mumbai’s busy Colaba Market area near the waterfront, was overrun by heavily-armed gunmen as part of coordinated attacks across the city’s southern peninsula on November 26.
The militants, who also took hostages at two luxury hotels, killed Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka, 28, who ran the Chabad-Lubavitch centre at Nariman House, and their four guests.
Four of the bodies were found in the building’s synagogue, said Rabbi Dov Goldberg, who worked with Chabad-Lubavitch in the resort town of Goa and was due to replace Holtzberg at the Mumbai facility. Indian and Israeli officials have said Nariman House was targeted by the militants, linked to Pakistan-based extremist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba, because it housed the Jewish centre.
Ashok Pandy, 62, who runs a small sweet stall just metres (yards) from the centre, agreed. “What happened here happened because they were here,” he said. “If they come back it might create some problems, so they need security and we need security to make us feel safe.”
The lane in front of the grey building has been cordoned off and half a dozen policemen stand guard to ensure no one approaches. The roads here are narrow and crammed with tiny jewellery and tailor shops, while untethered goats nibble at piles of garbage.
Ahmad Khan, another resident, said: “I won’t feel safe when they return.- Speaking as he tied up a goat in readiness for slaughter to mark the upcoming Eid-al-Adha festival, Khan said he did not believe official accounts that the centre had been attacked by Islamist fanatics.
”They were here for two or three years, we don’t know who attacked them, if it was the Jews themselves using their own arms to fight the police, or others.
“This is their own house, they can come back and live in it if they want, but I won’t feel safe,” he said. Jewish community leader Solomon Sopher said he understood the apprehension of the local residents.
“One bitten, twice shy,” said Sopher, chairman of Keneseth Eliyahoo synagogue, the biggest of Mumbai’s two synagogues. “It is not going to be easy for them to forget the trauma that has taken place here,” he said, adding that it would be long time before the building was habitable.
During the siege of Nariman House – which lasted about 48 hours – residents of surrounding buildings were told to stay indoors but some were caught in crossfire as security forces tried to dislodge the militants.
Haresh Gohil, 25, was shot in the back, according to Mint newspaper.
The call centre worker earned 20,000 rupees (4,000 dollars) a month, making him the highest earner in his extended family of 15, who live behind Nariman House. “We are worried. Will this happen again? Can it happen again? If the Jews come here, they are welcome. But will that bring terrorists here again,” his brother-in-law Ajay Parmar was quoted by the paper as saying.
Taj Hotel also security risk
If they’re afraid of Chabad House re-opening
for security fears, same should go for the luxury
Taj Hotel! More ammo was unloaded over there.
hide and seek
# 1 to bad!
#2 none of the neighbors were attacked so what are they afraid of.
# 3 lets’ close every landmark and let’s stop living our normal lives just like the terrorist want!
upside down world...
$4,000 as a call center worker? where did we go wrong? outsourcing jobs to foreign countries for the same or more pay?????! I would become a call center worker for that money, I’ll putup an indian accent and i’m good to go!
what are they thinking?
what, they really think they’re safe anywhere?!? if 9/11 can happen, 12/10 can happen just as easily even if chabad doesn’t re-establish itself, as i hope it will.
representin- Chicago
To “upside down world…”,
I think they made a mistake when quoting the guy’s salary. $1 US Dollar is currently equal to 49.025 Indian Rupees if you go to an online currency conversion site. So I do think that the call center worker pulled in 20,000 rupees a month. But 20,000 rupees a month is equivalent to only $400 a month, not $4,000 a month. Believe me, if he was really pulling in $4,000 a month in India doing call center work, I’d be shocked. After all, even USA-based call center workers couldn’t pull in that kind of money ($48,000 per year) even in an expensive market like NYC. Plus, I don’t even know if US-based call center work is even located in the pricier markets.
DavidZ
This is blatant anti-semitism!
One guy is probably Islamic, himself. Let them feel unsafe. They should feel unsafe in such a country rampant with avodah-zarah and terrorism.
Build a new Chabad House, never mind the scoffers!
Moahiach Now!!
what??
This is a new one..that the Jews themselves caused this to get the police inside and fight them??
logic
maybe we should all move to different planets!
Duh!!!
For a country that took 3 days to respond to a terror attack, and 15 hours!!! for their TOP SPECIAL UNIT to get through this operation…they’ve got what to fear!