Panic ripped through Gujarat’s transport network on Monday morning as simultaneous bomb threats targeting RTO offices in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat triggered a high-alert scramble that forced mass evacuations and brought routine operations to a halt.
As the threat emails surfaced, fear spread, RTO campuses were cleared out, corridors were emptied, and thousands of applicants who had queued up for driving track tests were sent back, leaving them confused
The response, however, was swift. Police teams, bomb disposal units, and sniffer dog squads fanned out across all four cities, sealing perimeters and launching exhaustive anti-sabotage sweeps to hunt for any trace of explosives.
In Surat, Deputy Commissioner of Police Lakhdhirsinh Zala confirmed the intensity of the operation, stating, “The entire campus was evacuated immediately, and a thorough anti-sabotage check was conducted. No objectionable or suspicious item has been found during the operation, and normal functioning will resume shortly.”
Even as fear lingered, he struck a note of reassurance, adding, “There is no cause for concern or panic. Citizens are requested to maintain calm and continue their work as usual at the RTO.”
But behind the scenes, the investigation has now shifted gears, moving from ground zero to the digital trail.
The Surat Cyber Cell has launched a parallel probe, dissecting the threatening emails to trace their origin, decode technical footprints, and identify the sender behind what appears to be a coordinated hoax.
Meanwhile, the ripple effects of the threat were felt differently across cities in Rajkot; every branch office inside the RTO premises was meticulously searched, while in Vadodara, stranded applicants waited outside for nearly two to three hours, caught in uncertainty before being issued fresh appointments for the next day.
The most alarming input, however, emerged from Ahmedabad, where the Subhash Bridge RTO Office received a message, warning that 13 bombs would detonate at 12:50 PM, prompting an even more intense security sweep led by bomb detection squads.