Letter Threatens Mumbai Synagogues Over Gaza Conflict
Scene of Trauma: Memorial candles are seen placed in front of a photograph of slain Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivkah, at the Chabad (Nariman) house in Mumbai, which Islamist militants stormed in 2008. Image by Getty Images
Mumbai city police received a letter threatening to bomb Jewish sites in the city in retaliation for Israel’s operation in Gaza.
The letter, reported by Indian news outlets on Sunday, reportedly had threatened to launch the attacks on Friday, the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The letter was signed by the Indian Mujahideen.
Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria ordered an investigation into who sent the letter and its threats, the Times of India reported.
“Maria you were lucky in 1993 to have escaped the wrath but this time you will not. Now we are going to carry a blast and it is a challenge for you if you can stop, stop it. Mujahideen,” the newspaper said that the letter read.
On March 12, 1993, a series of explosions throughout Mumbai killed 257 people and injured 713. Organized crime groups were responsible for the blasts.
In November 2008, six Jews were killed at a Mumbai Chabad House as part of attacks on several sites throughout the city by an Islamist Pakistani group that left 166 dead and hundreds wounded.
Mumbai police reportedly are on high alert through the end of the Ramadan holiday later this week.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
