Bomb Threat Emails Trigger Panic In Chandigarh And Punjab; Schools, Courts And Secretariat Evacuated

Chandigarh, April 6: Panic gripped Chandigarh and parts of Punjab on Monday morning after several institutions, including the Punjab and Haryana Secretariat, district courts, schools and the Mayor’s office, received bomb threats via email.

Sent by an outfit called Khalistan National Army, the emails triggered evacuations and search operations by bomb disposal and dog squads, while police and security agencies got into alert mode, stepping up security measures.

Schools evacuated amid timed threats

In Chandigarh, the schools, which included some of the prominent ones, received the threat mails with specific timings during school hours, which triggered evacuations and students were sent back home.

Unlike in the past, the threat this time extended beyond schools to high-security zone institutions, including the Punjab and Haryana Secretariat, which houses the offices of the Chief Ministers – Bhagwant Mann and Haryana – respectively, ministers and top bureaucrats’ offices of the two states.

Key locations targeted

Besides the Chandigarh Mayor’s office, Gandhi Bhawan on the Panjab University campus also received a similar threat in Chandigarh.

While the police forces and security agencies launched searches and investigations, the institutions named above were also evacuated. However, no suspicious object had been recovered from any of the locations till the time of filing this report.

Threats reported across Punjab districts

Elsewhere, besides the district courts in Mohali and Ferozepur, several schools in Amritsar and Jalandhar also received similar threats. It was the fourth such incident in these two districts when such threats were received by the schools.

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Security stepped up across region

Meanwhile, the police and security agencies were said to have stepped up security measures at all public places, including bus stands and railway stations across the region.