Amid exams, schools get hoax bomb threats

At a time when examinations of school students are under way, bomb threat emails were received on Monday morning by more than 10 schools in the city, including Police DAV Public School, Ryan International School and the Rama Mandi branch of Apeejay School.

After the email threat was reported, police teams rushed to the spot with dog squads and bomb disposal squads. Despite intense checking, no explosive was found.

Police DAV Public School is located within the PAP grounds, and several wards of Punjab Police personnel study at the school. As examinations were in progress, authorities decided not to evacuate the schools. With board examinations also under way, efforts were made to ensure there was no panic and that students could appear for their exams in a calm atmosphere.

The teams from the cyber cell were deployed immediately to track down the source of the email. "All SHOs, Assistant Commissioners of Police of Model Town, Cantt and Jalandhar Central and Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police were immediately mobilised, along with the anti-sabotage teams, but all schools were found to be safe", read a release from the Jalandhar Commissionerate Police.

Such threat emails have come to Jalandhar-based schools for the third time. Even before the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 1, four schools from the city had received such threatening emails but all were found to be hoax. The first e-mail threat to the schools was reported in the last week of December.