Mumbai on alert over ‘Gaza threat’

Security has been tightened across Mumbai after the city police received a letter threatening to attack Jewish places of worship in retaliation for the Israeli attack on Gaza.

Security has been tightened across Mumbai after the city police received a letter threatening to attack Jewish places of worship in retaliation for the Israeli attack on Gaza.

The one-page letter, written in broken English, reached the Mumbai police control room on Friday.

In it, a hitherto unheard of outfit calling itself “suicide mujahideen” threatened to carry out blasts at synagogues across Mumbai on the last Friday (July 25) of the holy month of Ramzan.

“The blasts would begin with the morning player on Friday and continue till the late night prayers,” the letter read. So far no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the city, but the police are not taking any chances as the letter comes amid reports that youth from Mumbai were going to Iraq and Syria to join the ISIS’ jihad.

The city commissioner of police, Rakesh Maria, told HT on Sunday that investigations were on to find out who had sent the letter and how credible the threat was.

The letter was addressed to Maria and throws a challenge to his investigative skills: “Once again you get a chance like 1993. This time you will not get anybody. Stop us if you can.”

Maria had, as a deputy commissioner of police, successfully investigated the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case and rounded up many members of the Dawood Ibrahim gang.

The sender also claimed to have forwarded the letter to a number of media agencies in India and outside, including AP, BBC and Al Jazeera.