NAVI MUMBAI: A bomb hoax call sent the railways and other security agencies in a tizzy on Sunday. At 8am, aman called up at Chennai railway station and identified himself as an LeT terrorist. He then threatened to blow off the Coimbatore-Bikaner superfast train. Following this threat call, the train was checked by the authorities at every station it halted.
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Maharashtra, it was checked at Kankavali, Ratnagiri, Chiplun, Roha, Panvel and Vasai. When it arrived in Panvel at 2.50pm, a bomb squad, dog squad, an ATS team, RPF, GRP and crime branch units of railway as well as city police were deployed. The all-AC coach train with 14 bogies, two generator vans and one pantry car had around 700 passengers on board.
Passenger Dhiraj Parikh, who boarded at Coimbatore, said, "We are unaware about what is going on. At almost all the stations, the police are checking the train."
A Mangaluru-Panvel passenger, Rajesh Singh, said, "No announcement was made about any bomb threat call. I have never seen such checks in trains. Though the train was late due to security checks, it later covered up between stations."
Panvel's deputy station manager A J Khan said, "The superfast train arrived at 2.50pm and left 3.07pm after due checks."