Mumbai bomb threat: Genuine plot or just another hoax in India’s growing pattern?

Mumbai, Sep 5 The Mumbai police are on high alert after a bomb threat was received from an unknown terror group called the Lashkar-e-Jihadi on the eve of Anant Chaturdarshi, officials said on Friday. The threat claimed that 14 terrorists had entered India and about 400 kg of RDX would be used to carry out blasts.

The caller said that the bombs are capable of killing 1 crore people. It was further claimed that the bombs had been placed in 34 vehicles, and they would shake the city.

The Mumbai Police said that it is capable of handling any threat; all precautionary measures have been taken. The police at a press conference also said that all places, including parking and basements, are being checked.

The bomb threat comes as the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations conclude, with the immersions beginning on Friday. Lakhs of people take part in the visarjan across the city.

The Lashkar-e-Jihadi is an unknown terror group, and hence the call may well be a hoax. However, the police are leaving no stone unturned as Pakistan and Bangladesh-based groups have been planning major strikes in India.

However, there has been a pattern in the least one year, where the number of hoax calls has gone up in India. On Monday, one person was arrested after he made a hoax bomb threat call about blowing up a railway station in Maharashtra’s Thane district.

In August, the ISKCON Temple in Girgaon received a bomb threat email, which turned out to be a hoax. On July 25, the Mumbai police received a call threatening a bomb blast at Terminal 2 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA). This, too, turned out to be a hoax.

While most of these threat calls have turned out to be a hoax, the security agencies cannot afford to take any risks. Earlier, there was a series of hoax calls made threatening to blow up airlines. Several of these threats were made on social media handles as well.

In the airlines case, it appeared to be a sustained pattern, which was aimed at hurting the aviation industry in India. Such calls create panic, and this could have been the larger goal. In some cases, it was also found that the callers were just playing a prank to gain some attention. The investigators kept hitting a dead end. It was found that the VPNs were being used to issue the threats. They were well masked, and this was stalling the probe. The agencies are even probing the larger picture to try and ascertain whether this is part of a larger psychological warfare.

Similar calls were also made to schools, malls, colleges, and hospitals.

While the probes are still ongoing, the hoax calls that were made to the airlines did have an impact on business. Many calls had to make emergency landings, and this added stress to the industry.

The passengers in such cases have to be evacuated, and the aircraft searched thoroughly for the possibility of any bomb. In these cases, the flights also had to dump 100 tonnes of jet fuel to ensure a safe landing. This alone cost the airline Rs 10 million. Further, the total cost of diverting, then grounding the passengers and crew, grounding the aircraft, and replacing the crew cost the airline Rs 30 million.

The Mumbai police said that they receive such cases on their helpline numbers from unknown callers. In many cases, it has been found that these people are either facing mental health issues or those under the influence of alcohol.

However, the police have to take these calls seriously and not take any chances. If a specific location is mentioned, the police have to evacuate the premises and carry out a thorough search with the help of the bomb disposal squad.

In the present case, threatening to carry out blasts during the visarjan, no particular place has been mentioned. This makes the job even harder, and the stress on the police system is only multi-fold.

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