Five Ludhiana schools receive bomb threat emails, police call it hoax

According to police, the email—received on official school accounts at around 9.14 am—warned of blasts at educational institutions at 1.11 am

Five private schools in Ludhiana were thrown into alarm on Thursday after receiving bomb threat emails warning of explosions on school campuses and railway tracks, prompting urgent security measures across the city before authorities later confirmed the alert to be a hoax.

Police conduct checks at a private school in Ludhiana following the threat email on Thursday; and (right) parents gather outside a school to pick up their children. (Gurpreet Singh/HT)

According to police, the email—received on official school accounts at around 9.14 am—warned of blasts at educational institutions at 1.11 am and threatened disruption of railway operations on Thursday. It also cautioned parents against sending children to schools and advised the public to avoid train travel ahead of the scheduled blackout mock drill in Punjab on Friday.

According to police, the emails were received from—kopammojuvsccx@gmail.com — with the sender identifying himself as part of a Khalistan National Army. Officials said that preliminary probe suggests it is a fringe outfit. HT has accessed and verified the email.

The schools that received bomb threats are DAV Public School (Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar), Spring Dale Public School (Sherpur), Manav Rachna International School (Dugri), Podar International School (Gill Road), and another private institution.

Following receipt of the emails, school administrations immediately alerted police and activated emergency safety protocols. Students were evacuated within a short span of time as a precautionary measure, while security personnel conducted thorough inspections of classrooms and surrounding premises. After the checks, officials confirmed that no explosives or any suspicious objects were recovered.

Security checks were subsequently extended to Ludhiana railway station and trains, given the specific mention of railway tracks in the threat email.

However, railway authorities confirmed that no separate threat email had been received by the Railways and no input had been communicated through official channels regarding any planned attack. Despite this, precautionary checks were carried out and no irregularities were found.

Ludhiana commissioner of police Swapan Sharma said all five schools had received identical emails and reiterated that the threat was found to be a hoax. “Cybercrime units are actively tracing the origin of the email, while security has been strengthened in view of the upcoming blackout mock drill.