12 year old played a prank on the mumbai security forces

Mangalore Today News Network

Mumbai, Oct 01, 2016: The Navi Mumbai Police called off their search for "a group of suspicious men dressed in black and heard mentioning ’school’ and ’ONGC’ in Borinaka near the Uran Naval base after discovering that a 12-year-old girl had played a prank "for some thrill.

However, the schoolgirl was let off with a warning and a little bit of advice on the consequences of such pranks. Sources from the intelligence agency said that her account of having spotted the "suspicious looking men" in pathani suits was given credibility only after a few other students at the school confirmed that they had spotted the men.

The 12-year-old was the first one to report that she had spotted Pathan suit-clad men speaking in a different language and carrying what looked like weapons" in Uran. A huge search operation was launched by the Navy, National Security Guard, Coast Guard and the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad that lasted for a week.

However, the student changed her statement during the second round of questioning that took place a couple of days after Uran was put on high alert and search operations were underway. The girl said that she had seen pictures of terrorists belonging to the Islamic State group wearing black clothes and carrying weapons that prompted her to report the matter "for some thrill."

"Though such faux alerts remain a concern, we cannot afford to ignore any of them as, if proved correct, they are a valuable tool in preventing terror attacks. But frequent false alarms contribute to force fatigue. Citizens must also realise that false alerts cost resources and money," an officer was quoted by the Times of India as saying.

"We have recorded statements of other villagers, who have told us that they haven’t spotted any suspicious men. We also went through all the CCTV footage of the nearby area where the two children ’spotted’ the terrorists, but nothing has been found. After this, we have decided to stop the search operations," a senior officer told the Indian Express.

The officer added that the department needed "people to come forward and share information." No action will be taken against the student because, according to him, "if we take action against the students then people won’t come forward and share information with us. To counter terror, we require active participation from people and therefore we have decided not to take action against them."