Police receive messages about Somalia-like attack in city .The message said that the incidents like recent terrorist strikes in Somalia could also happen in Mumbai.
Mumbai: A week after receiving text messages warning of a “26/11-like” terrorist attacks in the city using Pakistan series mobile numbers, the Mumbai police on Thursday night received another message from a Somalia series mobile number, alerting the cops in the wake of recent terrorist strikes in Somalia.
The message, also forwarded to several law enforcement agencies and senior police officers, from the Somali series mobile number, said that the incidents like recent terrorist strikes in Somalia could also happen in Mumbai.
On August 20, militants stormed the Hyatt Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, and killed at least 21 people. Islamist militant group al-Shabab later took responsibility for the attack.
The Mumbai traffic police WhatsApp number received the latest message from a Somali series mobile number around 1am on Friday, simply alerting the police officials that several incidents (terrorist attacks) are happening in Somalia and in India people should be alert.
“Though there was no threat in the said message, as a protocol we have informed about it to all senior police officers like Mumbai Police Commissioner, National Investigating Agency (NIA), Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), and the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU),” said a police officer
On August 19, the same traffic control WhatsApp number and got several threat messages from a Pakistani series mobile number. “The unknown accused had even given some seventeen numbers to the police saying that those were being used by the Indians who were going to help them carry out a “26/11-type” terror strike on the city again,” said the police officer.
Since then, the Mumbai Police force has been put on alert and several tourist spots in and around the city have been closed.
“We have learnt out of the seventeen numbers, seven belong to the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). Nine are from Bijnor and one from Haryana. We questioned a barber from Virar who hails from Bijnor and whose number was one of the numbers shared by the accused but have not found anything suspicious. We are yet to question the others from Bijnor,” said a senior police officer.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) based in the United Kingdom (UK) was used to send the August 19 threat messages on the WhatsApp helpline number operated by the Mumbai traffic police control room, sources in the Mumbai police crime branch said.
They said the crime branch has written to the service provider and sought details of the customer, who purportedly used the network from Pakistan. The police officers, however, said the possibility of the phone number being hacked and used for the purpose by some anti-social elements cannot be ruled out.
The person whose number was used to send the earlier messages was identified as Mohammed Imtiyaz from Lahore in Pakistan said he did not know how to use WhatsApp.
Source:hindustantimes.com/cities/mumbai-news