Three buildings, including the Punjab and Haryana secretariat in Sector 1, the UT mini secretariat in Sector 9 and the Punjab Municipal Bhawan in Sector 35, were evacuated after the administration received a bomb threat on Thursday. This comes a day after 30 schools received a similar threat from suspected Khalistani entities.
Officials said the authorities concerned of these offices received emails at 9 am in which the sender termed himself as “Khalistan national army” while issuing threats to the Punjab chief minister. The police were informed, following which anti-sabotage teams, bomb disposal squads, fire brigade, ambulance services and PCR teams were sent.
After a search operation, things were back to normal as nothing incriminating was found. The police reiterated their message, urging people to ignore rumours and keep calm.
On Wednesday, after 20 private and 10 government schools received such threats, their premises were evacuated. The pre-board examination and practical examinations in some schools were affected because of this.
Meanwhile, officials of the cyber crime police station, who are probing Wednesday’s incident, said the emails were sent from somewhere in the United States as suggested by the details of the sender’s IP address.
An official familiar with the matter said the sender could be from someone who is linked to Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a vocal Khalistani activist who is currently based in the US and known for issuing such threats. While officials are probing Thursday’s episode as well, they said there is a similarity in between the two incidents as the emails were sent from Gmail accounts and expressed similar Khalistani sentiments. Officials said they would pursue the case further under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.
While there have been numerous bomb hoaxes in the city in the past few years, including calls to the Punjab and Haryana high court, the Chandigarh District Courts Complex in Sector 43 and the Nexus Elante Mall, the police haven’t made any arrest in the recent years. Officials said the callers mostly are tracked to countries outside India, making the investigation complicated.
In such hoax cases, FIRs under Section 113(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) can be registered, punishable with imprisonment for a term not less than five years.
www.hindustantimes.com
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