The Anti-Terrorism Squad on Tuesday released six Muslim boys who were detained by the Government Railway Police after one of their co-passengers had misunderstood a WhatsApp message one of them had sent, The Hindu reported. “One of the six boys WhatsApped a friend about having reached Mumbai, and instead of writing ‘Bombay’, he typed ‘Bomb’, Senior Police Inspector Suresh Patil from the Vashi GRP told The Hindu.

The incident took place when the students – all from Kerala – were travelling to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in a suburban train on Monday. They were travelling to Rajapur for a month-long Urdu course. The six were detained by the GRP at Kurla Railway Station.

The police had checked the boys’ luggage on Monday but had not found anything suspicious. The students had then been handed over to Vashi GRP.

“We checked with the institute the boys mentioned, and it confirmed that they were indeed students who were on their way to join the course,” Patil told The Hindu. “After we verified that they were innocent, the ATS carried out an inquiry and gave them clean chit.” He added that the boys had left for their course on Tuesday and would continue their trip as planned.