Mumbai: A bomb threat was received on the Sahar airport hotline, claiming that an IndiGo flight would be blown up, reports said on Wednesday. The flight was arriving from Chandigarh to Mumbai and landed late at night.
In response, security authorities quickly isolated the aircraft upon landing and carried out a thorough inspection. Fortunately, no suspicious items or explosives were found onboard and the threat was reportedly declared a hoax after rigorous checks.
The timing of the threat raised concerns, as it coincided with heightened tensions following India’s major counter-terror operation across the border. Just hours before, the Indian Armed Forces had executed a coordinated strike, codenamed Operation Sindoor, against nine terrorist infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The operation, involving all three branches of the military, targeted facilities used by banned terror outfits Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. It was carried out in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that claimed the lives of 26 civilians.
The nine targets identified and hit during Operation Sindoor included:
1. Markaz Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur
2. Markaz Taiba in Muridke
3. Sarjal camp / Tehra Kalan
4. Mehmoona Joya Facility in Sialkot
5. Markaz Ahle Hadith in Barnala, Bhimber
6. Markaz Abbas in Kotli
7. Maskar Raheel Shahid in Kotli District
8. Shawai Nallah Camp in Muzaffarabad
9. Markaz Syedna Bilal, also in Muzaffarabad
The precision strikes were described by the government as focused and non-escalatory, aiming specifically at terror-related infrastructure without targeting military or civilian areas.
Airline Operations Suspended At Northern Airports
Meanwhile, the bomb scare at Mumbai airport came amid broader airspace disruptions across northern India. IndiGo Airlines had earlier issued alerts noting operational delays and suspensions of flights to and from cities like Srinagar, Jammu, Amritsar, Leh, Chandigarh and Dharamshala. A later update also added Bikaner to the list, attributing these changes to evolving airspace conditions in the region, widely seen as fallout from the security situation following Operation Sindoor.
