Several Jews slain in Mumbai attacks were tortured: Forensic experts

New York/Mumbai, Dec.5 : The Jews who were murdered by terrorists in Mumbai last week were tortured before they were killed, forensic experts and Mumbai's Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) have confirmed.

The New York Daily News quoted Rakesh Maria as saying that several of the dead Jews had died of "strangulation and not from bomb or bullet injuries," at Chabad House.

"There are indications that they were indeed tortured, although we are yet to receive medical reports," he added.

Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife, Rivkah, 28, both formerly of Crown Heights, were among those slaughtered last week after Pakistan-based terrorists staged a 60-hour rampage through Mumbai that left nearly 200 dead.

Most of the bodies found in the Jewish center the Holtzbergs ran were badly damaged when Indian commandos staged a botched rescue.

"If they were tortured, it would be hard to tell from looking at some of the bodies," an Israeli source was quoted, as saying.

The torture claim was yet another shock for the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch community, to which the Holtzbergs belonged. Also slain in the attack was another former New Yorker who belonged to a Satmar sect, Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, 37.

Maria's horrific revelations came after India got another scare when several shots were fired at New Delhi's main international airport.

"It was not a terrorist incident," said local police spokesman Rajan Bhagat. "No one was killed."

ANI