NEW DELHI: Delhi-NCR witnessed an unprecedented situation on Wednesday morning with at least 200
schools
receiving an email warning them about a bomb on their premises, leading to widespread panic. Responding to messages from the schools, parents rushed to pick up their wards even as a massive exercise was launched by multiple agencies, including police, fire units and bomb and dog squads, to comb the premises.
Students were evacuated and a stretched police force searched every nook and corner of the schools. Even school bags were examined.
The mails had been received by around a dozen schools till 9 am but slowly the number rose, eventually leading to virtually all schools being shut for the day. There was all-round relief when nothing was found at any school by noon but the scale of the event led to unease among parents and dominated conversations around the city.
The special cell has begun an
investigation
after filing an
FIR
and is trying to trace the sender. The ministry of home affairs and lieutenant governor have asked the police commissioner for a report. Multiple agencies, including National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Cert-IN, have been roped in for the probe.
Preliminary findings indicate links leading to China and
Pakistan
’s ISI with a larger conspiracy for disruption of normal life suspected.
The alarming situation began building up as early as 6am with a couple of schools discovering the email and alerting police. “At 6:10 am, Delhi Police received the first PCR call from DPS in Dwarka Sector-3, alerting us about the email. Just 10 minutes later, another call came in from a school in Vasant Kunj. Soon, other schools started calling up, one after the other,” said a senior officer.
Law and order chief Ravindra Yadav was on the ground for hours ensuring the teams responded to the calls in time and sanitized the premises quickly. According to police, the PCR received 131 calls in this regard besides many schools directly calling up SHOs and DCPs. Thirty of these calls were from schools in South-West district followed by those in Dwarka (28), West Delhi (21) and Shahdara (21). Eighteen schools in south Delhi received the email.
Atul Garg, director of Delhi Fire Service (DFS), said that between 9:30 am and 11:30 am, they received the maximum number of calls, about 90. They had to dispatch 75 fire tenders to various spots.
Even as the cops began to comb the premises, students were asked to leave their classrooms and assemble on the grounds. The authorities informed parents through text messages and phone calls, urging them to pick up their children. The police formed multiple teams. While one coordinated with the bomb squad, the others worked with the management to evacuate the children.
“Every district has one bomb squad consisting of 17-18 cops, and it was a challenging day for them. They had to sanitize multiple places where political leaders were going for campaigning or filing their nominations and then quickly move to the schools,” an officer said. “Every single dustbin, bag and even flowerpots were searched. Canine squads were used extensively to sniff out explosives,” another officer added. As soon as the operation was completed at one school – in two to three hours – the bomb disposal squad was despatched to another. A traffic vehicle was moving ahead of the teams to clear the road so that they could reach quickly.
There were chaotic scenes at the schools as parents and relatives lined up to take the children home. The unexpected interruption caused traffic congestion in many areas across south, south-east and south-west Delhi and at other places too.
Finally, the emails were declared a hoax at all the schools by noon. “Today, bomb threats were received at some schools in Delhi through e-mails. Taking action on these threats, Delhi Police has conducted thorough checks of all such schools as per protocol. However, nothing objectionable has been found so far. It appears that these calls were a hoax. Delhi Police requests the public not to panic and maintain peace,” said a spokesperson.
