Mumbai High Alert: Uran terrorist spotting was a hoax, confesses 12-year-old school student

The girl- a student of Uran school- has conceded to spreading, what have now come to be known as mere rumours, about the suspected terrorists just "for some thrill".

Published: September 29, 2016 10:32 AM IST

By India.com News Desk

Mumbai High Alert: Uran terrorist spotting was a hoax, confesses 12-year-old school student

Mumbai, September 29: The high alert that was sounded in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai and surrounding areas, a few days earlier, starting a multi-agency search and combing operation to be launched, was the result of a hoax by a 12-year-old student of the Uran Education Society School, reports said on Thursday. The girl had said that she had spotted a group of four to five men dressed in black Pathan suits in the Uran area, which is close to the Naval base. She had said that the men were armed, were carrying rucksacs and were speaking in a foreign language, which sounded like Pashto. However, reports have now suggested that the spotting was apparently just a figment of the girl’s imagination!

According to a report in the Times of India, the girl has conceded to spreading, what have now come to be known as mere rumours, about the men, just “for some thrill”. Naturally, the agencies were exasperated by the girl’s “prank”, but they let her off, without a punishment, with a warning and a piece of advise on the consequences of such pranks. The Navy, the Coast Guard, Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad and NSG had all mounted a massive search operation together, which covered land, water and air to find the alleged fugitives. But even after two days of thorough combing operations, nothing had come up, making the security personnel anxious. ALSO READ: Mumbai, Navi Mumbai High Alert: Search operations in Uran over, says Navy; naval areas sanitised

The girl had went and told the principal of her school, who had then informed the concerned authorities, who had immediately declared a high alert, taking the threat of an imminent attack, at face value and leaving no stone unturned in looking for the suspects. The girl had even given the details of the face of one of her imaginative terrorists, and the police had released the sketch (sic) in the media, with the hope of finding them. The high alert had come just days after an attack on the Army base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir had killed 18 soldiers and wounded 19 others, in one of the most deadly attacks on the Army, during peace times.

This was probably why the authorities had reacted in record timings. However, as it turns out, the statements of the girl were never corroborated completely. She has now revealed that she had imagined up the men, after she has seen the pictures of some terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The girl’s account had however, also been authenticated by other students who had all agreed to have spotted the men, near the Navl base. Speaking to the Times of India, an officer said, “Though such faux alerts remain a concern, we cannot afford to ignore any of them as, if proved correct, they are a valuable tool in preventing terror attacks. Butfrequent false alarms contribute to force fatigue. Citizens must also realise that false alerts cost resources and money.”

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