March 23, 2010
Mumbai: The German Bakery in Pune was chosen as the terror target because Chabad House was well protected by the state police, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said today.
The German bakery destroyed in the February 2010 bomb attack, Pune, India. 17 people were killed.
Replying to a debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor's address, Chavan said intelligence input given to the state by Central agencies clearly mentioned that Chabad House was the terror target.
"The state police provided adequate protection (to Chabad House) and took security measures. Hence, terrorists shifted their target to German Bakery situated nearby," he said.
Indian official: Chabad house targeted
(JTA) -- Chabad House was the target of last month's bomb attack on a bakery in India, a government official said.
The Indian state of Maharashtra's Chief Minister Ashok Chavan told the Indian Legislative Assembly Monday that the target of the attackers was the Pune Chabad House, located several yards from the German Bakery.
Chavan said the bakery was targeted after the attackers discovered that Chabad was well protected by state police, according to the Press Trust of India.
"There was adequate security near the Chabad House," he told the Assembly. "Since the attackers could not break the security, they targeted the German Bakery.
“We have increased our police force and also purchased sophisticated weapons to deal with such attacks. We are taking all the necessary security measures based on intelligence reports.”
Seventeen people were killed and others injured in the bomb attack in Pune on Feb. 13.
Following the attack, the Pune police asked the Chabad House to update its security system at a cost of $20,000.
Indian Chabad House targeted in February attack
Indian security officials have confirmed that the Chabad House in Pune was the real target of a bomb attack which killed seventeen people at a nearby bakery.
Rabbi Betzalel Kupchik, of the Chabad House, said he recognised the sound of the blast as like a “Katyusha rocket sent from Hamas.”
Chief Minister of the state of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan, said that the attack which ripped through a popular German bakery in the north west of the city was intended for the Chabad House, a few metres away.
Seventeen people, eating in the packed restaurant, were killed and over fifty were injured in the blast.
Mr Chavan said that central intelligence agencies in India, working with the Maharashtra Anti- Terrorism Squad, had clearly indicated that the Chabad House had been the target.
He said: “The target of the attackers was the Chabad House which is near the German Bakery.
“There was adequate security near the Chabad House. Since the attackers could not break the security, they targeted the German bakery.”
He added: “We have increased our police force and also purchased sophisticated weapons to deal with such attacks. We are taking all the necessary security measures based on the intelligence inputs.”
The Pune police have recommended that the Chabad House also takes its own steps to up security, at a cost of around $20,000. Security has also been stepped outside the Ohel David Synagogue in the city.
Was the Indian bomb meant for Chabad? Feb 18 2010Security officials are not ruling out the possibility that Chabad House was the real target of the bombing in India last weekend, as it was opposite the bakery which was destroyed.
Eight people were killed and scores were injured when a bomb ripped through a popular restaurant in Pune, east of Mumbai, last Saturday evening. The German bakery was located just a few metres from the Chabad-Lubavitch centre across the street.
"We recognised the sound of the bomb - it was like a Katyusha rocket sent from Hamas," said Rabbi Betzalel Kupchik. "We thought it may be a gas blast. A few minutes later we get the information it was a terror attack.
"When we found out there were no Jewish or Israeli victims, it was like Purim. Five minutes before the blast some Israelis were headed there, but they came into Chabad House instead."
The police have now posted a permanent guard outside the centre.
According to India's home secretary, GK Pillai, the terrorists chose the area because it was popular with foreign tourists.
While the Indian government has not yet determined who is responsible, officials said they were keen to speak to David Coleman Headley, a terror suspect of Pakistani-American origin with links to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toba (LeT) terror group.
Between 2008-2009, Headley allegedly spent long stretches in India, surveying various sites including the Taj Hotel and the Chabad-Lubavitch centre in Mumbai, which were attacked by the LeT terrorists in November last year.
The Chabad-Lubavitch centre in Pune had also been surveyed by Headley on March 16, 2009, according to documents currently with American prosecutors dealing with his case.
Indian investigators believe that a local group known as the Indian Mujahideen (IM), which was also responsible for previous bombing attacks in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Jaipur, carried out the bombing. One of the avowed aims of this group, revealed in its literature, is to target Israeli tourists in India.
For IM members and their LeT backers in Pakistan, India is part of a triumvirate, along with Israel and the US, which are inimical to the Islamic world. Activists in jihadi training camps are encouraged to target India and Israel. While India is depicted as a Hindu-majority state that commits atrocities against a Muslim minority, Israel is shown as a key ally and supplier of military hardware which illegally occupies Palestine.
In 2004, two terrorists were caught in Goa while surveying beaches frequented by Israeli and American tourists. A laptop recovered in Iraq also pointed to a plot to target Israelis, Brits and Americans in India.
Israeli tourists are relatively easy to target since there are many of them there and they tend to travel in groups. An average of 35,000 Israelis visit India every year as tourists.
Meanwhile, the local Chabad heads say they are not scared and do not anticipate a drop in visitors to their centre.
"Worry will not help," said Rabbi Kupchik. "God is running the world. Do your best and God will do the rest."
Submitted by andie531 on Mon, 2010-03-29 04:46
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"When we found out there were no Jewish or Israeli victims, it was like Purim. Five minutes before the blast some Israelis were headed there, but they came into Chabad House instead."
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17 people get killed in a bomb blast yards away from you, and all you can think is Thank G-d, none of them were Jews.
In addition, we have the miracle of the saving of more Jews by some unknown force leading them to Chabad.