india

Updated: May 06, 2020 12:05 IST

Seven states, including all south Indian ones, were put on alert late on Thursday after the Bengaluru police received a tip-off about a possible terror attack on multiple cities and the gathering of a group of terrorists in Tamil Nadu’s Ramnathapuram.

The alert comes at a time when security and intelligence agencies are concerned about the existence of sleeper cells on Indian soil that could be linked to the group that carried out bombings in Sri Lanka, where 253 people were killed on Sunday during Easter celebrations.

A caller claiming to be a lorry driver said major cities in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, Maharashtra and Puducherry would be hit by terror attacks… (which) will take place on trains, said the letter issued by Karnataka director general of police to the states mentioned in the tip.

“He also claimed that there are 19 terrorists present at Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu,” the letter added.

A Karnataka police official, who asked not to be named, said the letter had been sent out after analysing the tip-off, which was received around 5:30pm. “Inputs with the police suggest that over a dozen terrorists could have sneaked through Ramanathapuram,” the officer added.

Ramanathapuram is few kilometres west of Rameswaran on the east coast, which is a short nautical distance from Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu too issued alerts to district and coastal security officials. A Maharashtra police officer said “... places that attract crowds… have all been put under extra surveillance”. The Andhra Pradesh police also confirmed it was on alert.

Indian security officials are also on alert for a possible new cell, which could either by a part of the Islamic State group or an expansion of the National Towheed Jama’at (NTJ).