According to officials, the messages were received on WhatsApp on a helpline number of the traffic police's Worli control room around 11:45 on 19 August night warning of a "26/11-like" attack on the city from a phone number with Pakistan's country code.
City Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar on Saturday confirmed that threat messages about 26/11-like terror attack in the city came from Pakistan as per available information.
The man from Virar who was detained by the Mumbai Police has been quizzed by the crime branch for the last three days, the official said. The crime branch of Mumbai Police is investigating the seven mobile numbers mentioned by the unidentified person in the threat messages.
Commenting on the matter, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “We have taken the case of the threat message (26/11-like terrorist attack on Mumbai) very seriously."
“Agencies have been informed of all measures to investigate the threat matter. Mumbai CP will give further details of the case," Fadnavis added.
"A technical analysis of the mobile phone numbers shows that some numbers are traced to Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Teams of crime branch will travel to these states to find out about users of these numbers, their profile, and how the sender got these numbers," he said.
While one of the threat messages said that six people will execute the attack, another said preparations were on to blow up Mumbai which will bring back the memories of the 26/11 attack, police officials had said.
Police were also investigating the numbers and persons mentioned in the messages, he had said, adding that these numbers were Indian ones.
In one of the most horrific terrorist attacks, a squad of ten Pakistani terrorists, including Ajmal Kasab, had arrived in Mumbai by sea route on 26 November 2008, and launched terror attacks at various places killing 166 persons and wounding several others.
