By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Feb 4:
Several cities in Maharashtra have been put on high alert following an e- mail received by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), from an unidentified person posing a “member of the Taliban” threatening to carry out a terrorist attack in Mumbai.
The Mumbai Police source said that NIA apprised them after the national agency received the e-mail on Thursday. The person who sent the threat mail described himself to be a Talibani and said that there would be a terror attack in Mumbai.
According to the police, the email address used to send the threat message had “CIA” in it and the sender claimed that a person having links with the Taliban would carry out an attack in the city. The IP (internet protocol) address of the sender has been traced to Pakistan.
Although the police suspect it might be a mischief, the Mumbai Police and the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), have launched an investigation into the matter.
The police had received similar messages earlier too. Last month, the Dhirubhai Ambani International School located at BKC in North West in Mumbai had received a threat call wherein an unidentified caller had threatened to blow up the school.
A similar suspicious call informing about the bombs planted at Infinity Mall Andheri, PVR Mall Juhu, and Sahara Hotel Airport in North West Mumbai was received in October 2022.
It may be recalled that the NIA in August 2022, had arrested Salim Qureshi alias “Salim Fruit”, a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, for allegedly aiding the gang’s terrorist activities in Mumbai. He was a close aide of fugitive gangster Chhota Shakeel. Qureshi was instrumental in extorting huge amounts of money in Shakeel’s name from property dealings for raising funds for terror activities of D company.
