After getting tip-offs from Intelligence agencies about a plan to hijack aircraft, a high alert has been issued and security has been stepped up at the Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad airports.
In the meantime, the Intelligence agencies have warned the Ministry of Home Affairs about the possibility of terror strikes on line of the london attack in metropolitan cities. After, the Intelligence agencies alert, the Ministry has written to police chiefs to beef up security apparatus.
Officials said an email was received from a woman on Saturday night in which she claimed to have overheard six boys discussing a plan to simultaneously carry out hijacks in Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad airports.
The Mumbai Police shared the e-mail with all security and Intelligence agencies.
The email reads: “I heard a few conversations about this, there were saying all of us 23 people have to split from here and have to board flight in three cities and hijack them at a time. They spoke some other things also but I could not hear them as I heard only these few sentences from them. I don’t know if I am doing correct or not and they are true or not, but I heard this so kindly go through this. I inform this as a duty and as a citizen of India. And please don’t make me to get into issues”.
According to sources, after scrutiny of the email, it is understood that a total of 23 people may be involved in the three hijacks which had been planned for Sunday.
“The mail may be a hoax one, but we cannot take risk by ignoring it. So it have increased the security checks,” said the sources.
According to Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) sources, the mail was received by the DCP Mumbai in which a threat of hijack was mentioned.
A, a high level meeting of all stakeholders at these airports was subsequently convened and the input was declared specific and actionable. The airport security agencies have also coordinated with the city police and other forces. Mumbai already has a city counter terrorism contingency plan, but in Hyderabad and Chennai it’s currently being put in place.
CISF Director General O P Singh confirmed that the security apparatus at these airports has been put on “an enhanced alert and protocols have been stepped up”. Special anti-sabotage sweeps are being undertaken at these airports since morning and security agencies, including the Central Industrial Security Force, have enhanced frisking of passengers, baggage scanning, pre-embarkation checks and patrols in the vicinity of the airports, he said.
The CISF has called in its sniffer dog squads and quick reaction teams for undertaking sanitisation drills at the airports. “However, there is no reason to panic and all the operations at these airports will be normal and without any hassle to passengers,” a senior officer who is part of airports security team said.
The police are probing the contents of the e-mail and trying to get in touch with the sender. In Delhi, Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik has directed am to beef up security apparatus in the national capital.
Earlier, IB has given input that ISIS is likely to motivate its cadre to carry out terror attacks by planting improvised explosive device (IED) and by launching lone wolf attacks, as have been done several times in Europe and the Middle East.