J&K man held for threat to flight at boarding gate

Mumbai: A J&K travel agent was arrested on Sunday for issuing a threat to Akasa Air's Mumbai-Jammu flight at a boarding gate just before its departure.Mohammed Yusuf Malik (52), who was transiting on his arrival from Jeddah, approached CISF SI Manishankar Rai (35) deputed at the gate and whispered a chilling threat: "The flight will not take off and no one on board will be alive."Rai didn't catch the message initially. In his police complaint, Rai said: "I was at boarding gate 27 when a man came up from behind and whispered something in my ears. I ignored him and walked away. However, he followed me and again whispered something. This made me ask him to speak clearly." After Malik repeated the threat, Rai promptly alerted senior inspector Sunilkumar, who conducted a search of Malik's baggage and ruled out any bomb threat, said an airport police officer. The CISF official then informed police. "The precise motivation behind Shaikh's actions remains unknown," said the police officer.The message was the 15th such related to bomb threat FIRs lodged from Oct 15-27 in the city, with five cases filed with airport police and 10 with Sahar police. In 15 days, over 410 domestic and international flights operated by Indian carriers from different cities have received hoax bomb threats. Most of the threats were issued through social media. The IT ministry has asked social media platforms to promptly remove or disable access to misinformation within the timelines prescribed under IT rules. The aviation ministry is also mulling take legislative actions to tackle the menace.

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