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Hyderabad police on the trail of hate email

The Hyderabad police has launched an investigation to trace the source of an email that warned of attacks on Muslims in the city.

At an informal chat with reporters on Wednesday, Police Commissioner M V Krishna Rao said his force learnt of the hate mail from news reports in an Urdu daily last week. Terming it a 'dangerous email', he said, "Obviously, it is intended to cause animosity between the communities."

"We are trying out to find out the source of this email, whether there is really a wine shop [in Secunderabad, where talk about impending attacks on Muslims was supposedly overhead] and whether the Sardarji [who is said to have overheard it] is available," he said.

Responding to queries, Krishna Rao said, "I am sure it [the email] is deliberately engineered by somebody who wants to foment communal trouble since we are going to have major religious events like the Bonalu and Ganesh festivals over the next two to three months. They want to vitiate the atmosphere, which is very peaceful."

He said the police was trying to trace the place (or computer) from where the email had originated. "It started somewhere else and got in circulation. The guys who are forwarding it to friends are not bad guys, but certainly the guy who originated it is a bad fellow," he quipped.

The commissioner said peace and communal harmony prevailed in Hyderabad not because of the police but because of the people "who want to keep peace".

Asked about the distribution of objectionable pamphlets in parts of the twin cities, he said the police were keeping a close watch on the situation. "We don't underestimate the potential of anything. We take everything seriously, even a rumour in the Old City."

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