City cops on alert after bomb threat to BSE

The Mumbai police on Friday got busy reassessing their security systems after being alerted about a threat to blow up either the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), or the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi (a major venue of the ongoing Commonwealth Games), which is currently hosting the Commonwealth Games, or a flight from Mumbai to Delhi.

The BSE received an email on Thursday night to this effect. The information was passed on to the police on Thursday by V A Dange, head of security at BSE. The source of the anonymous email is yet to be traced.

Apart from the BSE, the Intelligence Bureau in New Delhi too has received similar alerts, saying there was a possibility of another 26/11-like terror attack through the sea route. Heavy police bandobast has been made in and around the BSE and all along the sea coast.

The Navy, the Central Industrial Security Force, the Coast Guard and fishermen have been put on high alert. Senior police officers said the CISF, which guards the airport, has been told to be extra careful and to use sniffer dogs for patrolling the areas in and around the airport.

United States foreign policy expert Stephen P Cohen, in Mumbai on Friday, did not rule out the possibility of another terror attack on Mumbai in the near future. He said the recent attempted bombings at Times Square in New York had brought India and the US on the same platform when it came to dealing with terror attacks. US and India have common interests in normalising relationship with Pakistan, Cohen, who has authored 10 books on India and Pakistan's military and political regimes, said.

Sources said besides CISF, various airlines employees had also been given training to deal with the situation in the event of any untoward incident. Though police said it was a routine alert, officials were not taking it lightly in view of the Navratri festival.

Also, police have still not been able to trace the two suspected terrorists - Kalimuddin Khan alias Rameshwar Pandit and Hafeez Sharif - who had sneaked into India via Bangladesh. Intelligence report stated the two were sent to India to disturb communal harmony. The police, after inputs from intelligence agencies on Friday, sent out an alert message to all major places of worship across Mumbai, particularly the garba mandals which play till late in the night.