The Mumbai Police are on high alert after 26 Pakistani national have gone missing for the past two to three weeks, including a man who stayed in Juhu for nearly 10 years and ran a shop in the area. According to a Hindustan Times report, none of the 26 Pakistani nationals had provided their accurate details, like where they were staying or who they had come to meet while filling up the C-forms, a document all Pakistanis entering India have to fill.
This has come to light after security agencies tried to trace them. The report suggests that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) is leading the manhunt, which was triggered by alerts from intelligence agencies about threats emanating from moles in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.
The search for the 26 people intensified when security agencies could not trace them based on information provided in the C-forms. Notably, the C-form has the address of the person or hotel in India where a Pakistani national is staying, the duration of the stay and a copy of the passport, visa and residential permit.
According to the report, the Maharashtra ATS has sent its teams to all hotels and lodging houses in Mumbai to look for them. This comes amid reports that the Indian Mujahideen (IM) cadre, believed to be from Bhatkal in Karnataka, were planning to plot a big terror attack in Mumbai and had conducted reconnaissance in the city in the past few months.
Although the IM is weaker these days, its founders Riyaz Shahbandri alias Riyaz Bhatkal and his elder brother Iqbal are still in Pakistan and reportedly under the protection of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Apart from Bhatkal brothers, Sultan and Shafi Armar, are suspected to have been the Islamic State’s main recruiters in India. The two are believed to have been killed in Syria a few months ago.
