Team Herald
PANJIM: Yet another terror threat hovers over Goa with the latest information that the tourist popular State is allegedly on the ISIS radar. Highly placed sources said ISIS’s recognition of Goa came last year when one of its members allegedly conducted a recce of some parts of the northern coastal belt.
“We suspect the ISIS member might have stayed in Goa during the recce. Some of the heavily populated tourist hubs in the northern coastal belt could have been recceed. We are still trying to ascertain the information,” a senior officer said.
However, there was no official confirmation till late Saturday as Goa Police have still not received any formal communication from the Intelligence Bureau or Union government.
The information attains significance since a letter, supposedly sent by ISIS threatening Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, had arrived at the Secretariat last week.
Goa has always been on terror radar particularly during the peak tourist season. From US terrorist of Pakistani origin David Headley, to Chota Rajan’s sharp shooter Sheikh Umaid-ur-Rehman Ishrat Hussain, Pakistani trained Kashmiri terrorist Tariq Ahmed Batlo, Indian Mujahideen’s co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and a number of others have spent their ‘safe holiday period’ in Goa until caught elsewhere outside Goa.
