Mumbai Cops get 26/11-like terrorist attack threat from Pakistani phone number

A threat message warning of a 26/11-like terror attack was sent to the WhatsApp number of Mumbai Police traffic control, police sources said.

The threat message was allegedly sent from a Pakistan-based phone number and states that six people will execute the plan in India. The sender of the message said that his current location can be traced to Pakistan.

Mumbai Police has launched an investigation into the matter. Other agencies have also been informed about the threat message, sources said.

The alleged threat message gains significance after a boat with three AK-47 rifles and bullets was found off the Raigad coast in Maharashtra on Thursday. The discovery had triggered a terror scare in the state, as it bore an eerie similarity to the 26/11 terror strike. The terrorists involved in the attacks had clandestinely arrived in the country by boat.

Local police officials as well as the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) soon reached the spot and started probing the origin of the boat. A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team was also deployed to the spot.

Investigation revealed that the boat belonged to an Australian woman whose husband was its captain. Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said the vessel was on way to Europe from Muscat in June when it drifted to inclement weather. The Australian couple abandoned it after engine trouble, he added.

According to officials, the crew members of this boat had been rescued in June this year near the Oman coast.

It later drifted and grounded ashore, a Coast Guard official said. Some locals spotted the boat, having no crew member, in Shrivardhan area of Maharashtra’s Raigad district, and alerted security agencies.

Officials ascertained that the boat posed no security threat, though it remained unclear why it was carrying the weapons. Maharashtra ATS registered a case against unidentified persons under the Arms Act.