Protocols for the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC), convened in the event of a bomb threat call to an aircraft or airport, have been tweaked to better tackle the spate of the ongoing 'random' Internet-based threats being made to various Indian airlines, official sources said Tuesday.
It was written in the email that the "building will explode as bomb is planted", a police officer said and added that the IP address and other details of the mail are being checked.
As many as 19 flights have received bomb threats in three days and a Riyadh-bound IndiGo flight was diverted to Muscat due to the threat, according to officials.
A threat about the presence of bombs on an Akasa Air flight at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar was received on social media, but it later turned out to be a hoax, an official of the airport said on Thursday.
Three schools in Delhi received bomb threats via email on Friday morning, prompting a multi-agency response, including searches by police and bomb detection teams. The threats come after at least 44 schools received similar emails on December 9, which were declared hoaxes by police. Authorities are currently conducting checks at the schools, and parents have been advised not to send their children to classes.
Justice Subramonium Prasad said though police have filed a status report listing the standard operating procedure for bomb detection and disposal squads and the guidelines to deal with bomb threats in schools, they have not submitted data on several key aspects.
It is time for India to step up and get Russia, China and Europe to agree to a joint appeal to all combatants. Time is of essence, tomorrow may be too late, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale, former head of the history division, ministry of defence.
Nearly 80 domestic and international flights received bomb threats in less than 24 hours that later turned out to be hoaxes, keeping thousands of passengers and security agencies on tenterhooks.
Bomb threats were received by a few schools in Delhi on Tuesday, making it the second such incident this week and the fifth in nine days in the national capital, officials said.
Security agencies went into a tizzy after three international flights originating from Mumbai received bomb threats on Monday with one of them, a New York-bound Air India aircraft, getting diverted to New Delhi as travel plans of some 500 passengers went for a toss.
Two IndiGo flights, one headed to Muscat and the other to Jeddah, also received bomb threats before they took off and the planes were moved to isolation bays for security checks.
Bomb disposal squad teams cordoned off the hospitals to check the hospital premises but found nothing suspicious.
A car driven by a masked man breached security at the Delhi Assembly, raising concerns about potential security lapses.
The pattern of domestic airlines receiving bomb threats to their flights continued for the fourth day as two international flights, one each of Vistara and IndiGo, were targeted in the similar manner on Thursday.
Pseudonymous or anonymous nature of the social media handle, analysis of the geopolitical situation and presence of VIPs onboard are some of the new criteria that agencies will keep in mind while considering the seriousness of a bomb threat made to Indian airlines.
Shubham Upadhyay, a resident of Uttam Nagar in the national capital, was arrested for posting two bomb threat messages to draw attention after seeing similar news reports on TV, the police said.
In 14 days, more than 350 flights operated by the Indian carriers have received hoax bomb threats. Most of the threats were issued through social media.
The threat comes against the backdrop of a bomb blast in Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru on March 1.
Security personnel conducted extensive checks on the aircraft and found no danger, allowing the flight to proceed as planned, a Cochin International Airport spokesperson said in a statement in Kochi.
A private school in Delhi's Rohini received a bomb threat via email on Friday, but it was later declared a hoax after a thorough search of the premises. The threat came just a day after a low-intensity blast took place in Prashant Vihar, near the school. Police are investigating the incident.
A government girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was blown up by unidentified armed men, police said. The incident occurred in Ghora village, Baka Khel area of Bannu district. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing so far.
Chennai Police received a phone call claiming that a bomb had been planted at the ECR, Neelankarai residence of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) Chief and actor C Joseph Vijay, officials said.
The sources in the know said around 7 flights each of IndiGo, Vistara and SpiceJet got the threats while 6 flights of Air India received the threats.
The Mumbai police have registered a case against an unidentified person after three airlines received bomb threats on their X handle, an official said on Tuesday.
This is the second such incident involving an IndiGo flight in the past week. On May 28, an IndiGo Varanasi flight from Delhi had received an alleged bomb threat.
A passenger spotted the note with the message "There is a bomb in the flight" written on it inside the toilet and alerted the crew, a Sahar police official here said.
The school was evacuated and the fire department was informed about the threat around 8 am.
Security agencies searched over 100 hospitals and malls in the national capital after they received bomb threat emails on Tuesday. However, it turned out to be a hoax as nothing suspicious was found, officials said.
However, it said that the Delhi airport protocol required the aircraft to be inspected elsewhere before being cleared to land.
Far from it; the country's resistance to the US, its nuclear ambitions, and its pursuit of influence and proxies across the Middle East are driven by a constant search for independence and security. Thus, Iran will never capitulate. Trump will learn this home truth ultimately, and it is going to be a humbling personal experience that may even destroy his presidency, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The agencies have also found some common lines and words used in these fake threats like "bombs", "blood will spread everywhere", "explosive devices", "this is not a joke" and "you will all die" and "bomb rakhwa dia hai" (Hindi for bomb has been placed) among others.
The local police, a bomb disposal squad, a bomb detection team arrived at the LSR College along with a dog squad and conducted searches but nothing suspicious was found, the official said.
Police made an appeal to people to not believe in the audio messages that have surfaced on WhatsApp groups making false claims about the bomb threat that schools in Delhi-NCR received on Wednesday morning.
The passengers were offloaded and the aircraft was moved to an isolation bay for further inspection, airport sources said.
Police in Maharashtra's Nagpur have identified a 35-year-old man from Gondia in the state as the person behind a spate of hoax bomb threats that triggered panic, caused flight delays and led to increased security at airports and other establishments, an official said.
US President Donald Trump's threats against Iran have drawn strong condemnation from Democrat leaders, who are calling for his removal from office, while some Republicans express concern.
Security was beefed up as agencies swept the airport terminals after the emails were received around 12.40 pm from the ID exhumedyou888@gmail.com.
All passengers were evacuated at Kasu Begu railway station, they said.
A probe into e-mails threatening blasts at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and different places in 12 states has unravelled a tale of unrequited love and vengeance allegedly unleashed by a woman executive of an MNC in Chennai to defame a man, leading to her arrest.
A police official said they were verifying the details but no First Information Report has been registered yet.
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