Victims honored by India on 10th anniversary of massacre
MUMBAI (Reuters) – India paid tribute on Monday to the more than 160 people killed by Islamist terrorists in a 2008 attack in the city of Mumbai, the 10th anniversary of an assault that raised fears of war with Pakistan.
Senior state politicians laid wreaths and paid tribute to the victims at a martyrs’ memorial in downtown Mumbai, while other events were held at some of the sites of the threeday attack, which began on November 26, 2008 and targeted 12 locations.
Six Americans and one Mexican were among the 166 people killed by 10 gunmen who infiltrated the financial hub by boat and spent three days spraying bullets and throwing grenades around various city landmarks.
Two terrorists, Babar Imran and Nasir, alias Abu Umar, laid siege to the Mumbai Chabad House, murdering four people, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife, Rivka.
Their son Moshe, who was two-years-old at that time, survived the attack after being rescued by his Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel.
“A grateful nation bows to our brave police and security forces who valiantly fought the terrorists during the Mumbai attacks,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter.
India has blamed terrorists linked to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group for the attacks and said the gunmen, all but one of whom were killed in the assault, were Pakistani.
Pakistan condemned the attack, denied involvement of any of its agencies and offered to cooperate with India in the investigation.
Nevertheless, tension soared between the nuclear-armed rivals after the attacks.
India and the United States accused Hafiz Saeed, who founded the LeT, of being the attack mastermind. He denied involvement but Pakistani authorities placed him under house arrest for different periods. He was most recently released in November 2017.
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo called on Pakistan to uphold its UN Security Council obligations to implement sanctions against those responsible for this attack, including LeT and its affiliates.
“It is an affront to the families of the victims that after 10 years those who planned the Mumbai attack have still not been convicted for their involvement,” Pompeo said.
A spokesman for the Pakistani government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US State Department also announced a reward of up to $5 million for any information leading to arrests or convictions of those involved in the 2008 Mumbai attack.
Mumbai’s Chabad House unveiled a memorial to the victims on Sunday, renaming the center the “Nariman Light House.”
“We hope that viewing this will teach visitors the power of adding light,” Rabbi Israel Kozlovsky – the current head of the Nariman House – told Lubavitch.com. “We want to create waves of good that will spread until the whole world is filled with it.”
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.