Several District Courts In Himachal Receive Bomb Threats

Himachal Pradesh district courts and a school received bomb threat emails, prompting evacuations and searches.

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Source : ABPLIVE AI

Several district courts in Himachal Pradesh, including in Shimla and Sirmaur, and a prominent educational institution in Solan received bomb threat emails on Wednesday, prompting extensive searches by security agencies. However, nothing suspicious was found, according to police.

In recent months, similar bomb threats were received at the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, the HP Secretariat and Deputy Commissioner's offices. All of them turned out to be hoaxes.

"Multiple bomb threat emails alleging presence of RDX-based improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at several locations, including court premises in Shimla, Sirmaur, Kinnaur, Kullu and Chamba and Sanawar School in Solan district," said a statement issued by the police headquarters on Wednesday evening.

Taking immediate action, the premises were promptly evacuated to ensure public safety. Bomb disposal squads and sniffer dog units were deployed at all mentioned sites. Extensive search operations were conducted under the supervision of senior police officials and no suspicious objects were found during the inspections, it said.

The contents of all emails sent between 4:30 am to 5:30 am on Wednesday morning were similar and are believed to have originated from a single source and an investigation has been initiated to trace the origin of the emails, reportedly sent in the name of former students of Anna University.

Similar threats have been reported in other states over the past year, the police said "Himachal Pradesh received 8 to 10 such threats in recent months. Cases have been registered in Kullu and Shimla Districts, and investigations are ongoing. In a related case, Kerala Police have arrested an accused individual, and efforts are underway by Himachal Pradesh Police to obtain custody for interrogation," it added.

Shimla SP Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi told PTI that emails threatening to blow up court premises in several places, including Shimla and Rampur, were received on Wednesday.

Preventative actions are being taken, and police teams headed by DSP-level officers are on the spot, he added.

SP Gandhi said the Himachal Pradesh Police is coordinating with other states that received similar threats, and an investigation is underway to trace the accused.

Meanwhile, Sirmaur Additional Superintendent of Police Yogesh Rolta said the Nahan District court received a bomb threat this morning, after which the entire complex was evacuated as a precaution.

According to official sources, the email was noticed at 10 am when the staff opened the office computer to carry out judicial work.

They said that as per the security protocol, the information about the bomb threat was given to the police, besides immediately vacating the court complex.

Rolta said all aspects of this incident were being investigated thoroughly.

He appealed to the general public not to pay attention to rumours and said that all security arrangements have been made with diligence. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)