3 Delhi schools receive bomb threats; cops say email mentioned Khalistan

Teams from Delhi Police, the bomb disposal squad, dog squad and fire department are at the spot.

At least three schools in Delhi, including Army Public School Delhi Cantonment and Air Force Bal Bharti School in Lodhi Colony, received bomb threat emails on Monday. The threat arrived through a Gmail account around 8am.

Two schools in Delhi, Army Public School in Dhaula Kuan and Air Force Bal Bharti School on Lodhi Road, have received bomb threat emails on Monday. (RAJ K RAJ /HT PHOTO/Representational Image)

The email text, written in Punjabi, mentioned Khalistan and allegedly contained objectionable remarks against the Prime Minister, a police officer told HT on condition of anonymity.

It also mentioned the Vidhan Sabha, Red Fort and Delhi Metro stations, though the names were unclear, along with the three schools, the officer added.

Delhi Fire Services said the fire control room received two calls about the threat emails.

The first call came at 8:50am about a bomb threat email sent to Army Public School, and the second was received at 9:36am regarding a similar message sent to Air Force Bal Bharti School. One fire tender was dispatched to each school. The premises were searched but nothing suspicious was found, DFS told HT.

The rise of bomb threats to Delhi schools

Recently, there has been a sharp increase in bomb threats sent to schools in the national capital and Noida city in Uttar Pradesh. Courts across the country have also been getting similar threats.

Notably, all have turned out to be hoax, however, they create panic among students and parents.

On Thursday last week, at least three schools in Delhi received bomb threat emails, leading to evacuations and checks by several agencies at all three campuses. The threats were received early in the morning and were later confirmed to be a hoax.

Those emails were sent to CRPF Public School and St Thomas School in Dwarka, and DAV Centenary Public School in Paschim Enclave.

A Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officer said, “We received information about bomb threat emails sent to three schools in the Dwarka and Paschim Enclave areas. Fire tenders and rescue teams were immediately rushed to the locations as a precautionary measure. Nothing suspicious was found.”

Police said teams from the bomb disposal squad, dog squad and local police searched the school premises soon after the threats were reported.

More than 500 such cases were reported last year, and in the past two weeks alone at least four similar threats have been received by Delhi-NCR schools.

Bomb threat to Noida schools

On Thursday, at least 18 schools in Noida also received bomb threat emails during board examinations, police said, adding that the mails were later confirmed to be a hoax and nothing suspicious was found.

After school authorities saw the threatening message on their official email accounts, they informed police. This led to several teams from the bomb squad, dog squad and anti-sabotage check (ASC) unit, along with senior officers, rushing to the schools.

“Multiple schools received bomb threat mails in Gautam Budh Nagar on Thursday. Following the information about the threat emails, multiple teams were dispatched and extensive searches in all schools were conducted,” said Rajeev Narayan Mishra, additional commissioner of police (Law and Order), Gautam Budh Nagar.

(With inputs from Karn Pratap Singh)