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Mumbai on high alert

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI SEPT. 10. Seventeen days after the twin blasts here, the authorities have sounded a high alert in Mumbai following a specific input that a serious terrorist attempt is likely tomorrow, the second anniversary of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

The input was received at the highest quarters in the Government from the State Intelligence Department at 2.30 p.m. Within an hour, the Deputy Chief Minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, told a routine press conference that "anything can happen tomorrow, on the basis of inputs we have in Mumbai and the country." He declined to give details.

Sources, however, told The Hindu said that the input was essentially from the State-level agencies and specific enough to warrant a high alert. This was not mere speculation, they said.

They ruled out the choice of the date, September 11, for the feared trouble as having anything to do with the scheduled visit — now cancelled — of the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, to Mumbai. "This is, we suspect, all to do with the anniversary of the WTC attack," they said. "We have shared this (information) with the people," Mr. Bhujbal said later, "but we do not want them to panic, but just be alert."

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