Bomb Threats In Gujarat: Nearly ten major hotels in Gujarat's Rajkot city on Saturday received bomb threats via emails, threatening to blow them up. Some of these hotels included 5 star hotels such as Imperial Palace, Seasons Hotel, Hotel Grand Regency, and Sayaji Hotel. As the Rajkot city police launched a probe into the threats to find out the sender of the mail, it was discovered that the threats were hoax.
According to sources, the emails were sent around 12:45 PM and the person who sent the email threatened that "bombs will explode in a short while". He identified himself as Kan Den. The local police team, along with the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) and dog squad were immediately deployed at the hotels where they conducted thorough searches on the premises. The hotel rooms and the vehicles parked at the hotels' parking areas were also checked.
However, nothing suspicious was found in the search operation that lasted nearly five hours, said police inspector SM Jadeja of the Special Operations Group (SOG). He said the search concluded around 6 pm, while a probe is underway to trace the sender.
"I placed bombs in every location of your hotel. The bombs will go off in a few hours. Many innocent lives will be lost today. Hurry up and evacuate the hotel, the email stated," the email stated, as reported by news agency PTI.
Police Inspector RG Barot confirmed receiving the threat email. "Crime Branch has received information about this. A bomb threat mail has been received. Checking is going on. Further action is underway," he said.
The threats in Gujarat hotels came as the Indian carriers remain on high alert due to the bomb threats they have been receiving since the last two weeks. On Friday, over 25 domestic and international flights operated by Indian carriers received bomb threats. On Thursday, over 70 flights received bomb threats. Most of these threats were issued through social media.
In the last 12 days, more than 275 flights have received hoax bomb threats. Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu on Friday expressed concern over the surge in bomb threats and assured that the government is committed to taking strict action against those behind hoax bomb threats.
The Centre has also asked social media platforms X (formerly Twitter) and Meta to share all the relevant data about hoax bomb threat messages to airlines. The government has started identifying those involved in such activities.