MUMBAI—Two years after 10 Pakistani militants attacked Mumbai, business has seemingly returned to normal in India's financial capital—except in the Chabad House.
During the almost three-day siege of Mumbai in 2008, the militants took over the Chabad House and killed Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife, Rivka. Their son, Moshe, escaped with his nanny, Sandra, and now lives in Israel.
The Jewish community center—much of its six stories bullet-riddled and bombed out—still stands in the old Colaba neighborhood. But it is in a dispute between its caretaker, Eliran Russo, and trustees of the Chabad Mumbai Relief Fund, which is overseen by members of the Chabad Lubavich movement. Both sides say they are eager to rebuild it.
The movement's officials had planned to rebuild the center into a memorial, with a kosher kitchen, a synagogue and Torah study and a memorial for the rabbi and his wife on the fifth floor, which served as their residence. The bullet-ridden fourth floor is to serve as a general memorial to all victims of the attacks.
However, plans for the memorial have been stalled by a dispute over rebuilding rights. The question is who has those rights—Mr. Russo, hired by Rabbi Holtzberg's father, or the Chabad Lubavich movement, which raised the money for the Chabad Mumbai Relief Fund to pay for the renovations, according to Rabbi Motti Seligson, a Chabad Lubavitch spokesman.
Rabbi Seligson says the Hasidic Jewish organization raised the money to look after the rabbi's orphaned son as well as rebuild the center.
But Nachman and Freida Holtzberg, parents of the killed rabbi, told an Indian news agency they want to restore the Chabad House the way their son and his wife would have wanted, and they have no choice but to take the issue to court.
In October, spokesman Rabbi Seligson said, officials noticed that construction was being done at the center, allegedly without the required permits. Rabbi Seligson says the organization responded by filing a case against the caretaker, Mr. Russo, as he was the one overseeing it.
"As a Chabad community center, we are trusted by all whom we serve to ensure their well being and safety," Rabbi Seligson said. "We therefore took immediate action to halt the current construction as well as replace the construction company."
Mr. Russo couldn't be reached for comment.
The dispute has put the center's restoration in limbo until the Bombay High Court makes a decision on which of the parties has the right to rebuild the structure.
"We all are one … we are brothers," Mr. Holtzberg told the news agency. "This is really painful that the matter is in court … in front of the public. We just want to rebuild the Chabad House at the earliest," he said.
After the attacks, the Chabad Lubavitch, which runs the functioning and administration of the Chabad House, moved the center's activities to an undisclosed location in South Mumbai. Officials of the new center cite security reasons for not disclosing its location.
The 26-year-old Rabbi Chanoch Gechtman and his wife are the new permanent directors of the relocated Chabad House. The Israeli couple, who were appointed in June, arrived in Mumbai in early August to take over as local emissaries of the movement. Rabbi Gechtman, who has been an educator, had worked alongside the late Rabbi Holtzberg in Mumbai in 2006.
After the Mumbai attacks, the United Nations placed financial sanctions against four members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and a Pakistan based charitable organization, Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The sanctions require member states of the U.N. to freeze the assets of any organization or individuals named on the terrorism blacklist and to deny travel visas to blacklisted people.
In May, the lone surviving gunman, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, was sentenced to death by a special court for his role in the attack that killed 166 people and left many others wounded. The 22-year-old Mr. Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, was sentenced to death by hanging, for murder and waging a war against India, among other charges. Mr. Kasab's death sentence is pending confirmation from the Bombay High Court, which if granted will be sent to the country's Supreme Court for a similar process.
In Pakistan, a day before last year's first anniversary of the attack on Mumbai, a local court filed charges against seven members—including a military chief —of the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. India has accused Pakistan of dragging its feet on the trials, but Pakistan counters that India itself took more than a year to convict Mr. Kasab despite having him on surveillance tapes. Pakistan says it needs access to Mr. Kasab to conduct its trial and recently sent a delegation to verify the testimony he provided to Indian courts.
Also in May, Pakistan's Supreme Court overturned the house arrest of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, a firebrand Pakistani cleric who India believes masterminded the Mumbai attack. The court said Mr. Saeed can't be jailed due to lack of evidence against him.
Talks between India and Pakistan have been fractured ever since the 2008 attacks, with India blaming Pakistan for harboring the terrorists and not cracking down more strongly against terrorism.
On his trip to India earlier this month, U.S. President Barack Obama raised the issue during his speech to Parliament. "We will continue to insist to Pakistan's leaders that terrorist safe-havens within their borders are unacceptable, and that the terrorists behind the Mumbai attacks be brought to justice," he said, to resounding applause.
Victims of the attack say the city is still not safe from terrorism. "Our security is as bad as it was two years ago," said Zamir Haji Dalal, whose hand was injured by a bullet at the main train station during the attack. Mr. Dalal lost two family members during the attack, and now he cares for his bedridden mother who was shot in the thighs during the attack.
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