Lashkar men are in Bangalore, tweets BS Yedyurappa

Bangalore police may be giving a ‘business-as-usual’ impression as they go about tightening the security measures in the wake of a terror alert sounded by the Centre.

But a tweet, purportedly by ‘chief minister BS Yedyurappa’, saying, “Specific intelligence inputs have been received about LeT cadre influx into Bengaluru. Security forces have been placed on high alert”, has raised a scare that the threat could be imminent and real.

‘Yedyurappa’ LeT tweet was preceded by another one that read: “Request citizens to be on the alert against Jihadi terror groups out to wreak havoc during the festive season. Kindly spread this message”.

Even as the tweets were sparking off a scare, Bhrungeesh N, senior information officer to the chief minister, said: “None of us from the chief minister’s office is involved in Yeddyurappa’s twitter updates. We are unsure if any of his family members are updating his twitter pages.”However, the tweet spells the chief minister’s name as “Yedyurappa” and not Yeddyurappa as he insists that he be called.

A senior police officer on the condition of anonymity said, “We cannot comment on chief minister’s tweet. But no government servant is entitled to reveal inputs he has received, especially regarding security issues. The inputs are for him to discuss with his subordinates so they can take precautionary measures. Even revealing it to the media is an offence as such messages can create panic more than awareness.”

When contacted, police commissioner Shankar M Bidari declined to comment. “I have very poor knowledge about the internet and I am not aware of the tweets and cannot answer to these matters,” Bidari said.

However, the commissioner confirmed that if a citizen was caught revealing official secrets, he or she could be imprisoned for three years. The chief minister could not be contacted as he was away from the state capital.