CHANDIGARH: Many private schools in Amritsar received hoax bomb threats via email today, creating panic and immediate evacuation of students and staff. Sources said that the police teams and bomb disposal squads are currently conducting thorough searches of the premises, and the district authorities have ordered all schools to close for the day.
The managements of the schools immediately informed parents to pick up their children. The head of a private school said that the management received the threat on their school’s official email ID. "As soon as we received the email, our immediate response was to ensure the safety of our students. We sent a message to parents stating that the school had been closed for the day," she added.
Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar confirmed that some schools across the city and rural belt have received a suspicious email, which were found to be hoax.
"All the senior officers rushed and immediately secured all the schools campuses. Then, anti-sabotage checks were carried out and these threats were found to be hoax. We were in touch with the schools. As far as investigation goes, our local police stations, cyber cells and state cyber unit besides central agencies help is being taken to crack this case and track the source of the mail," he said.
Bhullar said that in the past, these kind of emails were traced back to students. He said that the threats might be a "mischief" as similar incidents in July this year and in 2022 were found to be non-credible. There is no need to panic as police are fully alert, the officer said.
Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, Dalwinder Singh has convened an emergency meeting. Meanwhile District Education Officer Rajesh Sharma said, "The officials held a meeting with the schools heads. We are looking into all possibilities and cooperating with the police. I had visited the schools immediately after I was informed.’"