Cops seek help to nab ‘terrorists’

Mumbai police have appealed to citizens that if they have information on three suspected terrorists, they should call on 100 or their local police station.

Police said three men and a burkha-clad woman hired a taxi at Mahim for two days on October 22 and 23. They had promised the driver a sum of Rs2,000 per day. The four visited five prominent places in the city — Mahim dargah, the Haji Ali dargah, Mahalaxmi temple, JJ Hospital and Hilton Towers. However, following an argument with the driver on October 23, they decided to stop using the taxi.

The driver, an elderly Muslim man whose identity was not disclosed, suspected his customers’ movements and behaviour. On October 23, he informed the Dadar police about the incident.

“The taxi driver said only one of them was speaking in hushed tones while the others kept quiet. They carried two travel bags which they carried with them to all the places they visited. Their dialect was sounded Kashmiri. Unless we apprehend them we will not be able to say whether they were terrorists or simply tourists,” said KL Prasad, joint commissioner of police (law and order). “In all the time they spent in the taxi, the suspects received only one call on their cell phone.”

An officer said police had received alerts from the intelligence bureau and security was beefed up in the city. “We have increased security not only at those places visited by the suspects, but in several other important places in the city,” he said.