Third threat in 11 months, Mumbai Police warned of 26/11-style attacks

Mumbai: For the third time in 11 months, the Mumbai Police has been threatened with an attack akin to the 26/11 terror strike of 2008, officials said on Tuesday.

The unidentified caller also warned of targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, sending the security circles into a tizzy.

An official said that a case under Indian Penal Code’s Section 509 (2) has been lodged against the unknown caller/s and further investigations are on.

This is the second call in a week of this nature with an earlier caller on July 12 threatening to carry out a 26/11-style attack on the city.

That caller had mentioned the name of Seema Haider, a Pakistani love-smitten woman who fled her country to enter India via Nepal along with her four minor children. He added that if Seema Haider was not allowed to return home, then the city could face a terror strike, but after a probe, the Mumbai Police dismissed it as a hoax later.

On August 19, 2022, Mumbai Police Traffic Control had received several WhatsApp messages from a Pakistani number, warning of a Mumbai terror strike type of attacks by six terrorists. These messages had come barely two days after a major security scare when a yacht with 3 AK47 guns and some ammunition had drifted to the Harihareshwar Beach in Raigad district.

A subsequent probe ruled out any terror threat even as the antecedents of the yacht later became clear that it belonged to an Australian sailor couple and had been abandoned after it suffered an engine failure.