Following the murderous rampage at a popular gay club in Orlando, Florida, that left 50 people dead, including the gunman himself, the Mumbai police have declared a general alert in the city and have also begun intelligence gathering to gauge the threat perception to the LGBT community in the city.
Police sources told The Hindu that unlike in the rest of Maharashtra, the incident warranted precautionary action in Mumbai because of the metropolitan nature of the city.
“People are more open about their preferences in Mumbai, and hold regular events for likeminded individuals, which are well publicised and talked about. While it is not as organised in Mumbai as it is in foreign countries, it would not be prudent to entirely turn a blind eye to any possibility,” a senior police officer said.
Police commissioner D.D. Padsalgikar confirmed that a general alert had been declared in the city. “All necessary precautions are being taken,” he added.
Pre-emptive action Officials said the intelligence gathering process was a pre-emptive action as there had been no examples of the LGBT community being targeted in the city in the past. The police are currently in touch with their sources to get a sense of whether the LGBT community runs the risk of being targeted in the city.
According to sources, the police’s concerns stem from two factors, the first being that the Orlando killings were a hate crime and, the second, the Islamic State (IS) connection. Before pulling the trigger on his AR-15 assault rifle, Omar Mateen reportedly called up 911 — the U.S. emergency number — and declared his allegiance to the IS.
IS influence Officials said there had been enough examples of the IS influence on the youth in the city to raise the possibility of someone trying to imitate Omar, although on a much smaller level.
Late last year, four young men from Malwani had fled the city to join the IS. While two of them returned , the third was confirmed to have joined the IS, while the fourth was arrested in Delhi in a nationwide sweep by anti-terror agencies against a large module of the IS, known as the Junood-al-Khalifa-e-Hind, the Army of the Caliphate in India.
Close to 20 other Indians were also arrested as part of these raids in various parts of the country. Apart from these, there have also been several instances of Indian youth trying to join the IS.
“When the IS module in India was busted, it was found that IS videos on the internet were instructing Indian youth to either try to join the fight in Syria or take the fight to India. We need to keep tabs on whether anyone is trying to ‘contribute to the cause’ by committing an offence similar to the one in Florida, using locally available weapons. The cyber space is being watched and intelligence at ground level has also been stepped up,” another officer said.
The Social Media Lab of the Mumbai police is currently trawling social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter to check for any activity related to the Orlando shooting as well as the IS.
While the Orlando incident by itself has been trending on social media since Sunday, the police are on the lookout for related trends that might indicate a rising influence among Mumbai residents, said sources.
The Hindu had in January >reported how the Mumbai police now use specially developed tools to flag searched for keywords like IS, ISIS and Jihad, and how these keywords are modified periodically in keeping with developments around the globe.
When asked about intelligence gathering through the Special Branch or the Anti Terror Cells of police stations in the city, Mr. Padsalgikar said, “Even if we are doing something like this, it would not be prudent to reveal it.”
