MUMBAI: Rabbi Taub looked lost and exhausted when he came out of the Colaba police station, after fulfilling yet another round of formalities to claim the bodies of nine Jews killed in the fedayeen strike.
‘‘It is highly bureaucratic here. Even at this hour of tragedy, they all want to go by the book,’’ he said wiping sweat from his forehead in the sultry Mumbai weather.
Rabbi Taub, a priest of Jews in the US, here since November 28 is continuously going around government offices with a bunch of papers authorising him to claim the bodies.
‘‘I was rushed here as soon as we came to know about the tragedy. Even though I have documents from the embassies of the US, Israel and Mexico, still I am stuck. It is not that the authorities do not want to help me but,’’ he told to this website's newspaper.
The Rabbi knew some of those killed and wounded personally. ‘‘Each time, I have to meet climb up the ladder and meet the topmost authority in every department,’’ he said.
He has been entrusted with the task of ensuring that all the dead bodies are flown back to their respective countries, including those of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Mumbai, who were killed after being brutally tortured at Nariman House by the fidayeens. The bodies of Rabbi and his kin will be taken back to Israel where they will be laid to rest after elaborate rituals.
Taub admitted that he is still not aware of the whereabouts of some of the foreigners he is looking for.
‘‘They are missing and I am putting in all efforts to trace them. Hopefully, with God’s grace they should be fine,’’ he said.
Hoping that all the formalities would be over fast, Taub said, ‘‘let’s see what happens.’’