The two men recently detained in India for planning to attack a Jewish center in Mumbai are suspected to be linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The suspects planned to carry out bombings at several sites including the Chabad House Jewish Center in Mumbai, which was the site of a deadly attack in 2008.
Mohammed Imran and Mohammed Yunus Saki were apprehended in Pune in possession of explosives, drone equipment, laptops, and incriminating books in Arabic.
The investigation into the local Islamist terror group known as Al-Sufa led to the arrests, with documents discovered on one of the suspect’s phones. The Chabad House was targeted in 2008 by Islamist Pakistani gunmen during a series of attacks in Mumbai, resulting in the deaths of seven people.
Apart from the 2008 Chabad attack, there have been other terror attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in India. In 2021, a blast outside the Israeli embassy in New Delhi damaged cars but caused no injuries, with India attributing the attack to the Quds Force branch of Iran’s IRGC.
During the past two years, Israel foiled attacks organized by the IRGC-affiliated agents in countries including Georgia, Turkey and Cyprus all aimed at killing citizens of Jewish origin.
Israel’s National Security Council has also warned of continued attempts by Tehran to target Israelis worldwide, particularly in countries near Iran in West Asia, such as the United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Bahrain, and Iraq’s Kurdistan.
Source: IMFAT