MUMBAI, 12 November 2007 — Security has been beefed up at all railway stations in Mumbai and Pune due to threat of bombs on the tracks, sources said yesterday.
The railway officials received phone calls yesterday claiming bombs were planted on the railway lines at some railways stations. Taking no chances, the railway and city police have been put on alert and patrolling has been intensified at all the railway stations.
“We receive several phone calls which turn out be hoax, but we do not want to ignore these calls and take them seriously, to avoid any terror attacks, which may prove fatal and lead to loss of lives at the railways stations and the trains,” said a police officer of Dadar railway station.
Several teams of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad and Dog Squads have been deployed to check the tracks and the railway stations and to detect bombs if any at these places. The Additional Director General of Police of Railway Security and chief of Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad, K.P. Raghuvanshi, said that both “covert as well as overt” security has been increased at the spot following the calls of terror attacks.
Raghuvanshi said police received several calls of terror attacks to be carried out at different railway stations in Mumbai, majority of these calls turned out to be hoax, but we do not take anything lightly.
“Adequate security measures have been taken to meet any untoward incident. However, nothing has been found as of now from the Mumbai Central railway station,” said Raghuvanshi.
Police have been alerted and messages of taking security precautions have been relayed to all railways stations in Pune, Karjat, Kasara, Kalyan, Thane, Palghar, Panel, Vasai and Lonavala, and efforts are on to trace the exact origins from wehre the calls are made and to arrest the culprits, said a police officer of the ATS.
Security in Mumbai, which saw a series of seven synchronised explosions on local trains killing 187 people last July, has been the highest since the beginning of the Hindu festive season of Elephant god Ganesh and the Ramadan Eid. Security has been further enhanced in view of another Hindu festival of Diwali and the police have also sensitised hundreds of people in wake of general alerts in the run up to the festival.
