Bomb threat to 10 Ludhiana schools triggers panic among parents
Nothing objectionable was found during search, probe on, say police
Panic spread in the city on Tuesday as 10 city schools received bomb threat emails. Tensed over the development, parents rushed to the schools to receive their wards. Some of the schools even advanced the departure timings and sent messages to parents to pick up their wards as soon as possible.
Though police investigation found that emails turned out to be hoax, the police launched an investigation to check if it was part of some larger conspiracy.
The threatening emails also warned about a bomb blast at the railway station. Hence, thorough checking was also done at the city railway station where passengers were frisked, their baggage scanned and trains were also searched.
After the threat emails, the Ludhiana police, bomb squads and dog squads reached the schools for anti-sabotage checking. As a precautionary measure, school premises were evacuated and police teams were searched the institutions and their surroundings.
Commissioner of Police Swapan Sharma said taking immediate action and showing quick response to the situation, all police stations were alerted and special teams, led by dog squads and bomb squads, were dispatched to the schools concerned. “No item such as any explosive material was recovered from any school. The cyber cell has been tracking the IP address of the threatening email to identify its sender,” Sharma said.
ADCP Sameer Verma said about 10 schools had received bomb threat emails and so far nothing objectionable was found. Still, the police checking was on.
Notably, it isn’t the first case of threats against schools. Several schools have received bomb threats in the past also. On February 10, 16 schools in Mohali received threats. The email, sent around 7:30 am, stated that a bomb blast would occur at schools at 1:11 pm.
Meanwhile, ADCP (Cyber and Headquarters) Vaibhav Sehgal said an anti-sabotage team of the Police Commissionerate, Ludhiana, along with a dog squad had conducted through checking in schools. Even buses and other vehicles of the staff were also checked but no explosives were found. To track the email sender, the cyber cell had already started investigation and soon the truth behind the bomb threat emails, which seemed hoax, would be known.
Jesus Sacred Heart School, South City, KVM School, Hambran road, Army Public School, Dholewal, Ryan International School, Moti Nagar, DAV School, Daad village; BCM School, Basant Avenue; Sacred Heart Convent School, Sarabha Nagar, Narayana e-Techno School, Bhattian, Dashmesh Academy, Bhamian, Jamalpur, and DAV Public School, BRS Nagar received bomb threat emails.
