Mumbai 26/11 terror threat case: The Mumbai police detained a man on Saturday in connection with the '26/11' style terror attack threat case, post which the state has been put on high alert, officials said. The Mumbai Police received the threat earlier in the day. Sources said that the man had been detained from Virar by the city's crime branch team.
Mumbai Police had received threat messages on the social messaging app, Whatsapp, stating that the city will witness a terror attack similar to the one that shook the financial capital in September 2008. The police had received the threat on a helpline number of the Worli traffic police control room around 11:45 pm on Friday night.
The message claimed that the next strike would revive the memories of the 26/11 terror attacks in the city by heavily armed 10 Pakistani extremists, officials said.
"Police received messages around 11.45 pm on Friday, which threatened that a 26/11-like attack would be carried out in Mumbai and the city would be blown up. There was a mention of 26/11 attacks terrorist Ajmal Kasab and (deceased) Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in the messages," city police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar said at a press conference on Saturday.
"It was also mentioned that some of their aides were working in India. Prima facie, the threat messages came from a number that has the country code of Pakistan," he added. Police have taken the messages seriously, he said, assuring that citizens' safety and security was police's responsibility. "Necessary measures are being taken to investigate the threat messages. We are alert on coastal security and are coordinating with the Coast Guard," he added.
'Sagar Kavach' operation has been launched and coastal security beefed up, the police commissioner added. The ten Pakistani terrorists including Kasab who caused mayhem in Mumbai and killed at least 166 persons had arrived in the city by sea route on November 26, 2008.
Police files FIR regarding threat messages
Phansalkar, meanwhile, said a First Information Report (FIR) was being registered under Indian Penal Code section 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) at Worli Police Station regarding the threat messages. The crime branch is also sharing the information with the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, he added. Police were also investigating the numbers and persons mentioned in the messages, he said, adding that these numbers were Indian ones.
Asked about the fact that the messages were in Hindi and not in Urdu and whether there was an attempt to create a fake IP address so that the messages would appear to have come from a Pakistani number, he said, "We can not rule out any possibility without investigation." Asked about media reports tracing the number to a Lahore-based gardener who claimed that his number had been `hacked', the commissioner said police were looking into this aspect too.
Yatch carrying weapons found along coast in Raigad
Police are already on high alert during the ongoing festive season, he said. The threat messages were received a day after a yacht was found off the Raigad coast near Mumbai with AK-47 rifles and live rounds on board, causing a scare, although officials said that there was no terror angle in it. Speaking to reporters at Nagpur airport, Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly Ajit Pawar said the threat messages should be taken seriously and central agencies should also look into them.
(With inputs from PTI)
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