Israeli embassy officials in India were briefed last month by the Indian government on possible dangers to Israeli tourists traveling in Rajasthan, a largely desert, Hindu-majority east Indian state bordering Pakistan.
According to a Wednesday report in the Hindustan Times, Indian officials believe that Indian Mujahideen, a known terrorist group believed to be the Indian arm of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani terror organization behind the 2008 Mumbai attack, is looking to target Israelis travelling specifically in Pushkar, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, three popular tourist areas.
According to the report, the Israeli embassy in India declined to issue a travel warning “beyond the normal” in response to the briefing.
The plot was allegedly revealed following the recent arrest by Indian authorities of the organization’s co-founder, Yasin Bhatkal. During his questioning, according to the report, he disclosed that a Brahma temple in Pushkar was particularly popular among Israeli travelers and that it was been scouted as a terror target.
Bhatkal also said the organization had recently split along ideological lines, with one camp taking its cue from the powerful Pakistan Inter-services Intelligence agency (ISI), which is allegedly hesitant about targeting Israelis “given the Jewish state’s policy of violent retaliation against terror attacks,” according to the report.
“Sources have claimed that after the [2008] Mumbai attack, the Pakistan military sent an unofficial message through the Turkish army to Israel claiming the Israeli deaths were an error,” the report went on.
Mumbai’s Chabad House, where Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, his wife Rivka, and four other hostages were killed by Islamist terrorists in November, 2008. The couple’s young son survived the attack thanks to his Indian nanny. (Photo credit: Serge Attal/Flash90)
