Fresh bomb threat email names Mumbai mayor's office, airport and Jalsa; civic HQ search finds nothing

Another email threatening to blow up Mumbai has been received, putting the city's security agencies on alert. The email, which arrived on Thursday, November 12, caused alarm. Only days earlier, a threat had been issued to blow up key locations in the country's financial capital, and a week had not yet passed since that incident.

According to the information available, the new email mentions the Mumbai mayor's office, banks in the city, courts, Jalsa, the Juhu bungalow of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, the Mahalaxmi Racecourse and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The email threatens to blow up all these places.

The earlier threat email had named the mayor's office, the court building, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Worli racecourse and Bachchan's bungalow Jalsa. The arrival of a similar email again has posed a challenge for the security agencies.

The new email also mentioned the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, so the civic administration and security agencies were immediately alerted. A search was begun at the municipal corporation premises. It has been completed and no suspicious object was found.

After the threat email, agencies are on alert for the security of the places concerned. An inquiry is under way into where the email came from, what the motive behind the threat is and how credible it is. The repeated arrival of such emails has again raised the question of security at Mumbai's key sites.

Meanwhile, a note carrying a hijack threat was found on Air India flight AI 2772, which was coming to Mumbai from Kolkata, causing alarm. The officials concerned examined the aircraft closely but found no suspicious object. The aircraft was then cleared to fly again. Passengers were re-boarded and the plane was due to leave for Mumbai shortly.

The Air India A320, registration number VT-TNH, was flying from Kolkata to Mumbai. At 10.37 am on November 11, the cabin crew found a note in the aircraft's washroom that carried a threat to hijack the plane. The cabin crew informed the pilots as soon as they found it. The pilots alerted air traffic control (ATC). Under the prescribed standard operating procedure (SOP), the airport administration took the aircraft to an isolation bay at Kolkata airport.