Indian intelligence has said that it is a probability that a bomb that killed 9 and wounded 53 people at a cafe in Pune, India, on Saturday was meant to be detonated at the local Chabad House, located several dozen meters from the site of the blast. Police say a bomb that ripped through a crowded restaurant in western India on Saturday was meant to explode at the local Chabad house, Ha’aretz reports.
The bomb at the German Bakery cafe was India’s first terror attack since the 2008 Mumbai massacre, in which at least 173 people were murdered in coordinated attacks on hotels and other public venues. The attack also targeted the Mumbai Chabad house, a Jewish house of worship and visitor’s center, where six Jews were murdered, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivkah, who was six months pregnant.
Chabad, a Chassidic group dedicated to outreach among Jews, maintains hospitality centers in communities around the world. There are a number of centers in India, although there are few indigenous Jews, to provide kosher food, community, and assistance to the many Israelis who travel there.
The bomb went off after a waiter apparently opened a package containing the explosive device. According to officials, the bomb may have been left for someone to pick up and take to the adjacent Chabad center before it was inadvertently detonated.
Following the attacks, life has not returned to “normal” for Jews in Mumbai, Ha’aretz reported earlier this month:
Yael Jirhad, who opened the Indian chapter of the Women’s International Zionist Organization exactly one year prior to the November 2008 terror attack, said the community has been forced to cope with increased security measures at Jewish institutions around the large city.
UPDATE:
According to the Associated Press, however, Israeli officials are questioning the Indian security forces’ determination:
Nitzan Nuriel, head of counterterrorism at Israel’s National Security Agency, said the Pune attack wasn’t directed at Chabad.
“The attack in India was not directed at Chabad house, even though Chabad houses appear on the potential lists of targets maintained by some of the groups that operate in the area,” Nuriel said.
What do you think?