After a boat with AK-47 rifles and bullets was found in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, the Mumbai Traffic Police control room received WhatsApp text messages threatening “26/11-type” attacks, an official confirmed on Saturday, August 20. The text messages were sent on Mumbai Traffic Police’s WhatsApp helpline, which is operated from Worli in Central Mumbai.
“Text messages were received on the WhatsApp number of the Mumbai police’s traffic helpline operated from the control room located at Worli in central Mumbai around 11 pm on Friday,” the officer said.
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The official also revealed that the origin of the number from where the messages were sent is overseas.
“In the series of messages, the sender has threatened about a 26/11-type attack,” he added.
The crime branch of Mumbai Police has begun an investigation into the WhatsApp messages received on the traffic helpline number.
The 26/11 attacks in Mumbai are one of the most dreadful terrorist attacks on the country since its Independence. The 2008 attack, which began on September 26 across 12 locations in the city, resulted in the killing of 166 people while more than 300 were injured. The horrific attacks were carried out by 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists across four days in the city.
After finding the boat on the Raigad coast a few days ago, where AK-47 rifles and bullets were found, the Mumbai Police have registered an FIR in connection with it.
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The boat in question belongs to a man who was on a voyage along with a crew from Dubai to Europe when he received an injury. He was later rescued on the coast of Oman and the rest of the crew decided to not continue on the journey and left the boat adrift.
According to officials, the guns found on the boat were legal and were obtained for security purposes against Somalian pirates.
However, the 26/11 attacks also began when the terrorists reached Mumbai on a boat from Pakistan.