Mumbai, May 19 (IANS) There was panic in Mumbai on Monday after the police’s helpline number 112 received information about an impending bomb threat, an official said, adding that the information giver was later booked for spreading rumours.

The hoax caller, identified as Rajiv Singh, claimed he had heard a person, present in the Sir J.J. Marg area, talking about blowing up the city with a bomb, the police said.

The police said an alert was sounded soon after receiving the threat call, with the local police and bomb squad team rushing to the Sir J.J. Marg area for combing operations.

After a thorough check, the call was declared a hoax, and a case was registered against Rajiv Singh for spreading rumours.

On Saturday, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and the iconic Taj Mahal Hotel, a key site of the 26/11 terror attacks, also received bomb threats, sparking heightened security measures across the city.

The threat, issued via email to the Mumbai Airport Police, carried a reference to the execution of Afzal Guru in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and warned of imminent bombings at both high-profile locations.

According to officials, the email claimed that the bombings would be carried out in retaliation for what it called the “injustice” of Guru’s hanging, and also mentioned S Shankar, another executed convict.

Soon after receiving the email, the police launched a full-scale investigation, and security was intensified at the airport and the hotel. Bomb detection and disposal squads were also deployed along with the launch of search operations.

This was not the first time Mumbai Airport had been targeted by such threats. However, the reference to Afzal Guru and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, which had come under siege during the 26/11 attack, had raised particular concern among authorities.

On May 9, a bomb threat was sent to Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, causing a security alarm. The threat, received via email around 9 a.m., claimed that a bomb had been planted on the hospital premises. The email also instructed that patients should be evacuated immediately. However, later it turned out to be a hoax.

–IANS

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