Just before I-Day, bag creates bomb scare near Taj hotel

Swati Deshpande & Mateen Hafeez

Mumbai: 



An unclaimed bag found in a building close to Bade Miya eatery in Colaba created a bomb scare on Friday afternoon. With the Independence Day just a couple of days away , the scene on the road behind Taj Mahal hotel suddenly became grim: several shops downed their shutters and a crowd gathered, with some recalling scenes from the 2611 terror siege of 2008.

Colaba police and the bomb disposal squad with Snowy , the sniffer labrador, arrived swiftly, cleared the building, Lansdowne House, and closed the road. While local residents and shop staff said they heard a loud bang, assistant police commissioner R Chavan said it was “nothing''. He thanked people for being alert. The person who spotted the bag -a zipper bag with old clothes as it turned out -was Abdul Kadir, a security guard at a third floor office in Lansdowne building. He alerted a manager about the unclaimed bag on the third floor landing. The manager immediately informed police around 3 pm.
It took about half an hour for police to announce there was no suspicious object or harmful material in the bag. Subsequently , some shops reopened.
DCP Ashok Dudhe, city police spokesman, said police did not find anything suspicious.Since the road is always busy due to its financial and tourist status, a large number of people gathered near the lane near the Gateway of India, wanting to know what was happening.
The cops then went with the sniffer dog to a building behind, also to find nothing. Before leaving the site, ACP Chavan addressed the group of onlookers and stressed: “Please be alert and stay alert for the next three days.“

The Times of India, August 13, 2016