Thin Black Line
Member
I take it that gun control in India is such that the average law-abiding
citizen has access to rocks, but the bad guys still have access to full
automatic weapons and grenades.
I commend the local citizens who tried to battle the terrorists with the
only "tools" their gov't probably left easily available to them.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...orists-attack-Jewish-centre-Bombay-India.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1227702336066&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
citizen has access to rocks, but the bad guys still have access to full
automatic weapons and grenades.
I commend the local citizens who tried to battle the terrorists with the
only "tools" their gov't probably left easily available to them.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...orists-attack-Jewish-centre-Bombay-India.html
Mumbai attacks: Neighbours battle terrorists attacking Jewish centre
Police commandoes battling the Mumbai terrorist attacks surrounded the headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch, which gunmen had seized overnight during a series of coordinated attacks across the city.
Last Updated: 11:35AM GMT 27 Nov 2008
Thousands of gawkers stood in the narrow alleyways near the white, five-story building in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) in India, where heavy curtains hung behind windows broken by gunfire. Neighbours had tried to protect the house as armed gunmen seized it Wednesday night.
A witness said three people were killed in the attack, but the account could not be confirmed.
"It seems that the terrorists commandeered a police vehicle which allowed them easy access to the area of the Chabad house and threw a grenade at a gas pump nearby," said Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, a spokesman for the Lubavitch movement in New York, adding the attackers then "stormed the Chabad house."
The house serves as an educational centre, a synagogue and offers drug prevention services.
Residents tried to protect the centre, clashing with the gunmen and throwing rocks at them in an effort to drive the militants away, said Puran Doshi, a local businessman who lives nearby.
The crowd eventually retreated under fire from the gunmen, who wounded one man, killed three others and threw several hand grenades, he said. Police could not immediately confirm his account.
"They shot indiscriminately into the crowd," Doshi said.
Sanjay Bhasme, 40, who lives in the building behind Chabad house, said he notified the police after the shooting began about 9:45 p.m., but no police arrived for more than 30 minutes — and only after he'd repeatedly telephoned for help.
Shmotkin said he had been unable to confirm reports that a couple and a teenager had been killed in the melee. He did not know the status of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, the main representative at Chabad house, or the rabbi's family.
He said there were other families who lived at the house, which draws hundreds of Israeli and Jewish visitors from India and abroad each year.
Shots were heard a few times Thursday morning, and the commandoes fired tear gas at least once at the house, said witnesses. Three people were lead from the building and escorted away by police: a woman, a child and an Indian cook.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1227702336066&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
'Eight Israelis held by terrorists in Mumbai Chabad House'
Nov. 27, 2008
DAVID HOROVITZ, matthew wagner, and jpost staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
Indian commandos and police were evacuating civilians and cordoning off the area apparently in preparation to storm the Chabad House in Mumbai India, where a rabbi, his wife and several other Israelis were being held hostage, according to IBN, an Indian news agency.
Chabad spokesman in Israel, Moni Ender, said there were eight Israelis inside the house, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka Holtzberg.
Newscasters were calling it the "final assault" on the Nariman House, where Chabad headquarters are located adjacent to the Leopold Cafe, a major tourist center in Mumbai's Colaba area which was also attacked Wednesday night.
According to reports by Reuters, the terrorists had asked the Indian government to negotiate for the release of the hostages. However, the government has repeatedly stated that they would not negotiate.
Several senior Indian police and security officers have been killed in the joint attack, which has caused police to take more cautious measures before storming the Chabad House, said Indian reporters.
Earlier, Reuters reported that one terrorist had been killed by Indian special forces in the Chabad House, but four others still remain barricaded inside, where they were holding off efforts to reach those inside.
Sky News reported that a loud explosion had been heard at the Chabad House. There was no official word as to the cause of the explosion, which could indicate the onset of an attempt to storm the compound.
On Thursday morning, Moshe Holtzberg, the toddler son of the Chabad emissaries, was rushed from the house in the arms of his nanny, Sandra Samuel.
"I took the child, I just grabbed the baby and ran out," said Samuel, 44, who has worked as a cook for the center for the last five years.
She said that the rabbi and his wife were alive but unconscious.
"Pray that we should hear good news," urged a Chabad spokesman, Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, in a telephone conversation with The Jerusalem Post from New York in the early hours of Thursday morning, Israel time.
Shmotkin also said that the had gunmen seized a police vehicle, which allowed them access to the area around the Chabad House.
Joshua Runyan, the news editor of the Chabad.org/news website, told the Post that there had been "several reports that shots were fired in the vicinity of the Chabad House, and unconfirmed reports on CNN of casualties in the Nariman House." Nariman House, Runyan said, was the original name of the Chabad House, which was purchased two years ago.
Runyan, who is in Jerusalem, said that a friend of the rabbi's had received an email from Holtzberg, unrelated to the attacks, at around the time of the attacks or shortly before they began, but that there had been no contact with Holtzberg since. "Since then, we've been trying all the numbers," he said.
The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem confirmed that hostages had been taken in the Chabad House area. The ministry had yet to make contact with some 20 Israelis in the Mumbai area.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke with the Israeli consul general in Mumbai, who briefed her on the attacks, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. According to the statement, the ministry and the consulate were making "maximum efforts to ascertain the situation of the Israelis in the city as quickly as possible."
Livni sharply condemned the attacks, saying, "This is further painful evidence that the terrorist threat is the greatest challenge which Israel and the international community have to face. Nothing justifies the unforgivable slaughter of innocents."
Indian news agencies reported that three people were killed in or close to the Chabad House. The dead were not hostages, the reports said.
Phone calls by the Post to the Chabad House and to the Holtzbergs went unanswered late Wednesday night and in the small hours of Thursday morning.
Friends of the Holtzbergs placed messages on various internet sites appealing for information about them.
Israel Radio reported that staff from the Consulate were visiting local hospitals. Runyan said the Chabad House was a popular tourist destination and that "Israelis regularly come by and visit."
In an article on the chabad.org Web site, Runyan wrote that "Chabad-Lubavitch representatives in New York and Israel are working alongside the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the US Consulate in Mumbai and a volunteer team of local residents to ascertain the well being of the Holtzbergs and other Jews in the area."
He added: "People are urged to say Psalms for Gavriel Noach ben Freida Bluma and Rivka bas Yehudis, and anyone affected by the tragedy."
