The Mumbai police on Thursday issued an advisory stating that four Lashkar-e-Taiba members had entered Mumbai with the intention of causing an “extremely dangerous and violent attack” on the city in view of the coming festivals and New Year celebrations.
“We request the citizens to be alert and call the specially dedicated hotline 022-22633333 in case they come to know about any of the four jihadi members,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy said at a hurriedly called press conference here. The names of the operatives are: Abdul Karim Musa, Noor Abu Ilahi, Walid Jinnah and Mehfuz Alam. The police have published the photograph of Walid Jinnah for wide circulation among the public.
Mr. Roy declined to reveal the nationalities or other details of the intruders but said the police had specific intelligence inputs that the four operatives recently entered the city to cause destruction. All the four members are in their 20s and 30s.
“As you all know, terrorist organisations have been eyeing Mumbai for a very long time. We have made special teams to trace and neutralise these jihadi elements. We have also beefed up security at all important crowded places, including places of worship,” he said.
Denying the possibility that the four had evaded the security radar, he said what was more important at this point was the fact that they were already in the city.
A few months ago, during Ganesh Chaturthi and other festivals, the police issued a similar advisory about two jihadi elements who, the police said, were in the city to cause disruption. “It was due to the wide publicity given to the photographs then, that those elements refrained from carrying out any such activities,” Mr. Roy said.
