Jews murdered in Mumbai’s Chabad House were tortured first

Mumbai hospital doctors were horrified by the condition of the six Israeli bodies recovered from the smashed, blood-spattered rooms of Chabad Center Monday. Local and Israeli pathologists confirmed they were tortured by their Islamist terrorist captors before being bound together and killed in cold blood.
debkafile adds: Israelis were the largest group of foreigners murdered by the Islamist terrorists. The single captured gunman confirmed they had been specifically targeted. The six bodies were flown home by an Israeli Air Force plane and are being laid to rest Tuesday in their home towns in state ceremonies.
Laid to rest Tuesday, Dec. 2 in state ceremonies in six Israeli towns are Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinovitz, 50, from Mexico, who was due to immigrate to Israel and two of whose children already live there; the center’s director Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka, 26; Ms Yocheved Harpaz, 59, mother of four from Givatayim; Betzion Chroman, 28, father of three, who held dual US-Israeli citizenship, and Leibisch Teitelbaum, father of 8, an American from Brooklyn.
Israel’s president, political leaders, rabbis and tens of thousands of mourners attended the eulogies for the dead at Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv and their funerals. Rivka Holtzberg was six months pregnant. Her two-year old child, Moshe Holtzberg, was saved by his Indian nanny who fled the building with him in her arms. He was found later to be covered in bruises from a beating.
An Indian doctor, who conducted the post-mortem of the victims in Mumbai, said: “Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself (the first day of the Islamist terrorist attack). It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again.”
“Bombay has a long history of terror. I have seen bodies of riot victims, gang war and previous terror attacks like bomb blasts. But this was entirely different. It was shocking and disturbing,” a doctor said.
Asked what was different about the victims of the incident, another doctor said: “It was very strange. I have seen so many dead bodies in my life, and was yet traumatized. A bomb blast victim’s body might have been torn apart and could be a very disturbing sight. But the bodies of the victims in this attack bore such signs about the kind of violence of urban warfare that I am still unable to put my thoughts to words,” he said.
At the Mumbai synagogue, members of the Jewish community, Israeli diplomats and visitors gathered Monday for a memorial for Rabbi Gavriel Holtzman and his wife Rivka, directors of the Chabad Center which provided a home from home for Israelis and Jews visiting India. Their two-year old son, rescued by his Indian nanny, cried for his parents. His nanny, Sandra, travelled to Israel with the child and his grandparents.