The Maharashtra Police and Central agencies on Thursday sounded a high alert along the Mumbai coast and launched a massive combing operation in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), after two students of a school at Uran in the neighbouring Raigad district spotted “five to six” suspicious people dressed in pathan suits with backpacks and carrying weapons.
Uran is a strategic location because it is in the vicinity of this town that the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, the biggest container terminal of India, important bases of Indian Navy’s Western Naval Command (WNC) like INS Tunir, the missiles and weapons storage facility of the Indian Navy, INS Abhimanyu, the training facility of the elite marine commandos, a facility of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation limited (ONGC) apart from several companies like Bharat Petroleum Corporation limited (BPCl) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation limited (HPCl) are based.
Besides, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) at Trombay is not far from Uran, which is located across the eastern waterfront of the commercial capital.
Not wanting to take any chances in the wake of the recent Uri attack, the Navy mounted aerial surveillance and intensified patrolling on the sea using its high-speed boats and vessels, while the Indian Coast Guard enhanced patrolling along the
Mumbai coast and the Marine Police beefed up measures along the creeks and important shore assets.
Intelligence agencies like the Research & Analysis Wing and Intelligence Bureau began to dig out information from their assets.
Having begun the combing operation earlier in the day, the Raigad and Navi Mumbai Police personnel were joined by their counterparts from the Mumbai Police, Anti-Terrorism Squad, NSG and Force-One late in the afternoon.
The Maximum City of Mumbai came under a thick security blanket, with the city police posting a posse of policemen at Fishermen’s colony in Budhwar Park at Colaba in south Mumbai.
This was the place from where ten Pakistani terrorists had sneaked into the metropolis and attacked the city, killing 166 people and injuring 300 others between November 26 and 29, 2008.
Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard helicopters hovered over the coastline of Mumbai, even as the authorities enhanced security in and around offshore assets like the ONGC Mumbai High and oil depots and refineries of BPCl and HPCl on Mumbai’s eastern seafront.
The State and Central agencies swung into action after two students, a boy and a girl, from a school run by the Uran Education Society reported sighted “suspicious” persons and informed their teachers and principal about it. The school authorities in turn informed the local police.
“As per a report, five to six people were sighted in pathan suits and appeared to be carrying weapons and backpacks. The WNC has expeditiously reacted to the situation by first initiating an alert and informing all coastal security stakeholders. Searches and other actions as per procedure have been initiated,” WNC spokesperson Commander Rahul Sinha said.
Simultaneously, the Navy began liaising with the Maharashtra Police.
“Two students said they had seen suspicious men in Uran. Post the information, multiple agencies are probing it,” Director General of Police Satish Mathur said.
Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) KP Bakshi briefed Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is currently away in the United States on an official visit.
Urging the citizens not to panic Fadnavis’ office tweeted, “All precautions are being taken. Massive combing operations are on…. State & Central forces are working in close Cordination. CM@Dev_Fadnavis has appealed citizens not to panic. Situation under close vigil.”
In related developments, the Central Industrial Security Force intensified patrolling at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and the BARC, while the Central Railway and Western Railway officials put the Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police on high alert.
Security was simultaneously beefed up at busy railway termini like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, lokmanya Tilak Terminus and Mumbai Central. The police were also seen checking taxis and autos rickshaws outside railway stations and busy public places.