Day after bomb threat, four Ludhiana schools stay shut as ‘precaution’

Day after six schools in the city received bomb threat emails, four of them remained closed on Friday as a “precautionary measure” despite assurances from the Commissioner of Police (CP) and the district administration.

Of the remaining two schools, one remained partially open and one reported low attendance.

According to the information available, Spring Dale Public School, Sherpur Chowk; DAV Public School, BRS Nagar; Manav Rachna School, Dugri; and Podar International School, Ishar Nagar; were closed. After receiving the threat emails, mentioning April 24, on Thursday morning, the schools had declared a day off as a “precautionary step”.

The CP and the administration had urged the schools to remain open and avoid panic after the threat emails of Thursday prompted heightened security checks and precautionary measures.

BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar, and KVM Public School, Civil Lines, received threat emails on Thursday afternoon.

JK Sidhu, principal, DAV Public School, said, “We closed the school as the threat specifically mentioned April 24. Though police teams have completed inspections and nothing suspicious was found, we didn’t want to take any risks regarding the children’s safety.”

Anuja Kaushal, principal, BCM School, said the institution had its annual function on Friday and the classes were conducted online.

“To avoid confusion and transportation issues, we conducted classes online. We received the threat email around 2 pm on Thursday and police officials have conducted checking. Nothing suspicious was found and the situation was under control. In today’s function, the Deputy Commissioner was present as the chief guest,” she said.

Though KVM Public School was open after getting security clearance, the institute reported low attendance. Pankaj Joshi, principal, said, “After the police completed an inspection and found nothing suspicious, we decided to keep the school open. However, attendance was low as many parents were apprehensive.”

CP Swapan Sharma said extensive anti-sabotage checks were carried out at all the schools and adjoining areas, including nearby railway tracks in some locations.

“Nothing suspicious has been found so far. Our cybercrime teams are investigating the source of the emails. Though we advised the schools to continue functioning as normal, the final decision rests with the institutes’ management,” he added.

Similar threat emails were sent to many city schools earlier in the year.