Patrolling at land and sea has been stepped up at the Gujarat coast and neighbouring Maharashtra following a radio intercept that hints at the possibility of a 26/11-style attack in the region. Sources said that the Coast Guard had intercepted a message about a terrorist strike some where in Mumbai or in South Gujarat. Various agencies,including the Coast Guard,Customs Department,IB as well as the state police held a high-level intelligence review meeting in Daman on January 21 to take adequate preventive measures. The authorities,meanwhile,are tightlipped about the exact content of the wireless intercept. Assistant Commissioner,Customs,Valsad division V R Kajale said that the Customs officials have been directed to go in for extensive deep-sea patrolling and assistance had also been sought from the state police. Valsad SP D J Patel,who attended the meeting,said that they had intensified surveillance in the coastal areas and stepped up co-ordination with the Coast Guard and Customs Department. Customs officials said that they had started checking all the people aboard fishing trawlers and verifying the whereabouts of the trawlers from the shipping company they are serving. The Mumbai attacks were perpetrated by terrorists who crossed the international border from Karachi and then hijacked an Indian trawler enroute to the Mumbai coast.
