Bomb threat from 'LeT' causes panic on express train

Police teams inspect the AC train

Passengers aboard the Coimbatore-Hisar Superfast AC Express were greeted on Sunday afternoon at Panvel by teams and teams of police personnel, causing a lot of confusion and panic.

Dozens of officers of the Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police, Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS), and the local police were waiting at the station at 2.50 pm to search the train owing to a bomb threat call received by the Navi Mumbai Police Control from the Southern Railway Headquarters.

The threat had come from a person claiming to be a member of the banned terror organisation Laskhar-e-Taiba, with the alert first sounded by the Chennai Police on Saturday around 9 pm. A call was placed to the Southern Railway Headquarters in Mumbai, which then passed on the message to the cops.

A local RPF officer said, "Every coach, including the pantry, was checked by BDDS and RPF teams, but nothing suspicious was found. An ATS team stayed onboard." Yatri Parishad President Subhash Gupta said, "Train passengers need to be police's eyes and ears. We should cooperate with the police."

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