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Mumbai, Aug. 24: A college principal’s unsecured Wi-fi connection has been traced as the source of a terror email, days after an American had come under the glare.
Maharashtra’s anti-terror squad (ATS) today tracked the mail warning of terror attacks to the office of the principal of Khalsa College in central Mumbai’s Matunga-King’s Circle.
Unsecured wireless Internet connections are easy to hack.
“The message was sent on behalf of the Indian Mujahideen on Friday to security agencies and some television channels. Besides vowing to attack security agencies and ‘non-believers’, the mail threatens a media group in particular. It has been traced to Khalsa College. Investigations are on,” ATS additional commissioner Parambir Singh said.
The college, run by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee of Amritsar, has a glittering alumni that includes actors Dilip Kumar and Akshay Kumar, poet-lyricist Gulzar and two IPL players — Iqbal Abdullah of Kolkata Knight Riders and Dinesh Salunkhe who plays for Rajasthan Royals.
The mail ridicules the investigations and arrests made in the Ahmedabad blasts. It has been sent from
alarbigujarat@yahoo.com — the same address that the Indian Mujahideen had used to send a mail from the unsecured Internet connection of American Ken Haywood minutes before the July 26 Ahmedabad blasts.
Captioned “Mood for Destruction”, the mail includes photographs of cars used in the Ahmedabad and Surat blasts.
It also warns of more attacks under the “nose” of the Gujarat and Mumbai anti-terror squads and claims that the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (Simi), the main suspect in the recent strikes, is innocent.
There is a special mention of Haywood: “Our heartfelt gratitude to Mr Ken Haywood and his associate for their complete co-operation and guidance to make our attack a huge success.”
Mumbai police have issued a look-out notice for the American who left the country after lie tests proved he had no links with the threat mail.
The police, too, are believed to have received an anonymous letter a few days ago warning of multiple blasts in the city between August 25 and 28.
“The letter mentions that apart from religious places, missionary schools, too, are terror targets. Local police stations have been asked to keep a tight vigil. An alert has also been sounded,” a source said.
Additional commissioner Sunil Ramanand, however, refused to confirm the report. “Security agencies receive threat letters all the time along with inputs from the intelligence bureau,” he said.
But he added, “whether fake or real, we take terror warnings very seriously”.