A day after the latest terror email was tracked to a Matunga college’s WiFi network, the state Anti-Terrorism Squad said there is reason to believe that a group of subversive elements has a strong presence in Mumbai.

“The e-mail sent from Kenneth Haywood’s unsecure WiFi network and now from Khalsa College’s WiFi network clearly indicates that there are leads in Mumbai. It only shows that the group has its presence here. There appears to be a Mumbai connection to this,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (ATS) Hemant Karkare.

The ATS is also convinced that the senders, the group calling themselves the Indian Mujahideen, have experts especially proficient in technology, people who have the know-how to “take advantage of loopholes in the system,” according to Karkare. Only a few months ago, soon after SIMI India chief Safdar Nagori’s arrest, investigating agencies had claimed that he admitted to having floated a group called the Muslim Technical Persons Organisation.

Karkare did not want to comment on whether the senders of Saturday’s email could be from this organisation. However, Karkare did say it was a “probability”. “It would be incorrect to make conclusions at this stage. One does not need persons in huge numbers to do this. We are sure that there are one or two persons who have been specifically indoctrinated based on their technology expertise,” he said.

Appealing to Mumbai’s WiFi users to enable security features on their systems, Karkare added: “We have seen in both the instances that networks that were not secure and routers whose security features were not proper have been targeted. I would like to appeal to the people to ensure that they check their networks, secure it and make it difficult for anyone to misuse it.” The ATS will also be talking to service providers on whether any system checks can be introduced too.

Karkare also said another specific Mumbai connection was found in the earlier email sent from US national Kenneth Haywood’s WiFi network: It made a mention of a little-known and mostly unreported incident that occurred in a local train, involving children studying in a madrasa. The incident was reported only in a newsletter called Urdu Press.