Threat e-mail casts shadow over Eden Test

Terror cast its shadow on Kolkata even before the city could fully recover from the scars left by last week’s violence over Taslima Nasreen.

Four days ahead of the Indo-Pakistan Test match, the police headquarters at Lalbazar in Kolkata received an e-mail that said Kolkata will be rocked by bomb blasts if the Pakistan team plays at Eden Gardens on November 30.

Police forces were put on high alert and an emergency meeting of senior officers was called in immediately. The police also requested all mobile service providers not to sanction any new connection.

Vigilance was beefed up at cyber cafes and officers and constables of the special branch were asked to report for duty in uniform which they usually don’t do. “We have tightened security arrangements at all sensitive places,” Police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakraborty Chakraborty said.

The mail in English was not addressed to anybody in particular. It was sent to a private TV channel and forwarded to the police.

“Pakistani players will be put up at a five star hotel in the heart of the city and they will be asked not to venture out on their own. In the past many Pakistani players had breached security protocol and left their hotels without the security personnel. The e-mail may be genuine or just a prank. But we cannot afford to take any risk”, a senior officer told HT.