Security alert after Jaish threat to blow up trains
By IANSMonday, June 14, 2010
RANCHI - The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror outfit may be planning to blow up trains bound to religious places in India, triggering a security alert at Dhanbad railway division, officials said Monday.
“A general alert has been sounded at some railway divisions, including Dhanbad, about Jaish-e-Mohammed’s threat to blow up trains bound to religious places. We have received a letter and sounded an alert in our division,” K.S. Upadhaya, divisional railway manager of Dhanbad railway division, told IANS.
Upadhaya said: “We have alerted the security forces and also appeal to passengers to be cautious while travelling and not to touch unclaimed objects.”
Trains like Baidnath Dham Intercity Express and Hatia-Jammu Tawi Express pass through Dhanbad.
In Delhi, sources said they had intelligence inputs that JeM may be planning to target trains to pilgrimage sites and states have been asked to stay alert and upgrade vigil.
“It is a general alert. We cannot take chances,” an official said.
The alert follows a threat letter last month to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Aditya Nath and the head priest of Lucknow’s Mankameshwar temple, Divya Giri. The letter sent through speed post was attributed to JeM, the terror outfit blamed for the 2001 parliament attack.
