The Nariman House is a five-story landmark in the Colaba area of South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The building was home to a Chabad house, a Jewish outreach center run by Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who owned the building since around 2006.
Kasim Stimberwala and Ubaid Mirza of Surat, who were arrested in October 2017 by a Gujarat antiterrorist squad (ATS) on suspicion of being Islamic State (IS) operatives, had allegedly planned lone-wolf attacks on Jews near a synagogue and Nariman House, sources in the Gujarat ATS said.
ATS sources said that the two had also planned an attack on members of the Jewish community at the Magen Abraham synagogue in Khamasa area of Ahmedabad.
If the duo had been successful, it would have been the second terror attack around Nariman House, or Chabad House—the place attacked by LeT gunmen during the November 26, 2008 attack in Mumbai.
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According to ATS officials, both the accused attempted to procure illegal firearms from about 10 places in Delhi, Lucknow, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Surat.
ATS officials said witnesses have also stated that Stimberwala and Mirza planned to store the illegal firearms at Surat.
Sources said the agency will in a few days submit a 1,500-plus page charge sheet in an Ankleshwar court. ATS has recorded the statements of over 100 witnesses—10 of them are recorded before a judicial magistrate under section 164 of the CrPC.
Gujarat ATS has also written a letter rogatory to Jamaica, where the duo’s mentor Abdullah Al Faisal is based. Stimberwala and Mirza planned to flee to Jamaica after the attacks. “They were in touch with Abdullah, who allegedly incited the two with radical speeches,” said an ATS official.
Kasim Stimberwala worked at a trust-run hospital in Ankleshwar and resigned about 20 days before he was arrested. Mirza is a lawyer and had a hotel business in Surat.
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