Armed with cameras, Israel group in Pune on `anti-terror' task

Pune: In an ironical coincidence, a group of amateur filmmakers from Israel was shooting here for a documentary on the February 2010 German Bakery bomb blast just when a diplomat of that country suffered a terrorist attack in New Delhi early this week.

On a visit to Pune with an "anti-terrorism" mission, the four-member crew led by Uri Artzi is currently sequencing the terrorist attack on the city landmark eatery that claimed 17 lives, including some foreign nationals.

Talking to PTI about his film titled `We All Are One', Artzi said "It is a private documentary. We see it as a mission devoted to humankind."

Artzi has one more reason to make this documentary. He had been a visitor to the bakery on an earlier occasion when he was in Pune and has fond memories of the time spent there.

Noting that both Israel and India had been frequently targeted by terrorists, Artzi, directing the hour-long film, said "What we are trying to convey is when you kill a person, you do not kill a nationality, and that we emerge stronger."

The shooting of the documentary in the tony Koregaon Park area also filmed a memorial service held to pay homage to the victims of the blast on the second anniversary of the first terror attack in the city on February 13.

"We have been speaking to the people who witnessed the attack, relatives of the injured and also workers at the eatery to portray the sequence of events," he said.

Artzi and his team, which will be spending about three weeks in India, interviewed the people living in the vicinity of the German Bakery which is close to the Chabad House and the Osho Ashram, frequented by foreigners.

"We interviewed them to understand the trauma they suffered on the day of the blast and in the aftermath which was a moving account," Artzi added.

The group is also expected to visit Taj Hotel and other targets in Mumbai to document the sites of terror attacks in the past.

"Through this documentary, we want to tell the people behind the bomb blasts that we are united," he said, adding the team wanted to capture the pattern used by the terrorists to target places frequented by foreign nationals.