Year-Ender 2024: From Delhi To Mumbai — Bomb Threats Put Security Forces On High Alert

Schools, hospitals, airports, and other institutions in India have received numerous hoax bomb threats via emails or calls in 2024. However, were dismissed due to lack of evidence .

Bomb threat at National Museum (File Photo)

Source : PTI

“We have placed a bomb on your premises. If you do not pay $30,000, we shall blow the place within 72 hours”. The chilling threat via email was issued to several schools in Delhi on December 9. This has become a trend over the past few months. Schools are often forced to suspend classes and evacuate the premises to ensure the safety of students.  

And this is not just with schools. Airports, hospitals, commercial establishments, and even banks in the country have not been spared of bomb threats this year. Thankfully almost all of them were found to be hoax calls or emails.

As per data from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, over 900 hoax bomb threats were received by the airlines till mid-November this year.

Here is a list of major bomb threats, which hit the headlines in 2024:

1. On May 1, around 150 schools in Delhi received a hoax bomb threat via email. The schools were evacuated and after preliminary checks, the email was confirmed to have been a hoax. Delhi Public School (Dwarka and Noida), Sanskriti School in Chankyapuri were among targetted ones. Similarly, dozens of colleges of Delhi University, including the famous Lady Sri Ram college, Ramjas college, Hansraj college and other colleges received a bomb threat email on May 23 and upon checking nothing suspicious was found.
2. Just days after Sanjay Malhotra assumed the charge of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Governor, the Mumbai office of the RBI on December 13 received a bomb threat in Russian language, with a warning to blow up the bank. The investigation is underway.
3. A day before polling for Lok Sabha Elections, over 40 schools in Ahmedabad, Gujarat received hoax bomb threats. Among the schools which got threat emails were Asia English School (Vastrapur),  Anand Niketan (Bopal), ONGC Kendriya Vidyalaya (Chandkheda) among others. Later, upon investigation the threat was termed as hoax by the police.
4. Airlines, too, have received several hoax bomb threats in 2024. In the second week of May, the word ‘bomb’ was found to be written on the tissue by a crew of Delhi-Vadodara Air India flight’s washroom, which was later turned out to be fake. Similarly, on May 28, a Varanasi-bound IndiGo flight at Delhi airport received a hoax bomb scare. Three days later, Srinagar-bound Vistara flight received a bomb threat while enroute to Delhi. Similarly, in June, September and October, several flights to national and international destinations from India received hoax bomb threats, which led to delayed flight operations. These include Mumbai-New York Air India flight, Dammam (Saudi Arabia)-Lucknow IndiGo flight, Delhi-Chicago Air India flight, Air Akasa flight headed to Bangalore were among others.
5. On August 15, 2024, the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) claimed to have planted bombs at about two dozen places across Assam. This led the security forces to send bomb disposal squads, metal detectors and sniffer dogs to look for explosives. Some local police officials in Nagaon, Lakhimpur and Sivasagar claimed that they have recovered some bomb-like materials from the spots.

In the last week of October, the Nagpur cops identified a 35-year-old man who authored a book on terrorism, Jagdish Uikey, from Gondia as a person behind causing nationwide delays and rescheduling of flights and trains by sending hoax bomb threats. In November, Uikey was sent to Nagpur Central Jail, after his police custody remand ended.