2024 Indian bomb hoaxes
From late April to May 2024, numerous bomb threat emails were received by many establishments including schools, colleges, hotels and airports across India, most of which were targeted at organisations in the Delhi-NCR.[1][2]
Threats[edit]
On April 26, authorities Kolkata and Jaipur Airports received emails claiming bombs were planted at various locations on its premises.
On 28 April, Mumbai Airport received a hoax bomb threat call, followed by Bhopal, Dabolim and Kolkata airports which received bomb threat emails the following day.[3]
On 30 April, Chacha Nehru Hospital in Shahdara received a bomb threat.[citation needed]
On 1 May, over 150 schools in Delhi received an identical message on their official IDs at around 04:00 — an email “threatening to blow up” the premises. The incident triggered mass evacuations of schools and panic among parents. After a thorough check, it was declared a hoax. Following a preliminary probe by the Delhi Police Special Cell’s Counter-Intelligence Unit (CIU), the email 'sawariim@mail.ru' was traced to a Russian IP address.[4]
Sanskriti School in Chanakyapuri, Mother Mary School at Mayur Vihar in East Delhi, Delhi Public School in Dwarka and Noida, and Amity International School in Pushp Vihar and Saket were among the schools that received the bomb threats.[5]
On 12 May, at least 20 hospitals in Delhi, the Indira Gandhi International Airport, and the Northern railways' office received similar emails from a Cyprus-based mailing service company 'beeble.com'.[6]
On 13-14 May, five private schools and two government schools in Kanpur received bomb threat emails.[7]
On 14 May, the 16th anniversary of the 2008 Jaipur bombings, over 55 schools in Jaipur received bomb threats via email.[8]
On 14 May, seven more hospitals and Tihar Jail in Delhi received bomb threats from the same Cyprus-based mailing service company.[9]
On 22 May, a bomb threat was received at the North Block, which houses the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The email was sent from an anonymous Gmail address and it was suspected that the sender had used a VPN (virtual private network) that masks the IP address, according to police.[10]
On 23 May, a bomb threat email was received by three hotels in Bengaluru, including the Oterra Hotel situated in Electronic City.[11] The emails were sent by a person who identified himself as daudee jiwal, claiming to be the son of a senior IPS officer. The sender claimed that his father had colluded with Pakistan-based ISI and a Tamil Nadu-based political family to execute the blast, to divert the attention from a drug scandal in which the TN-based political family is involved. The caller also suggested evacuation of the hotels by 14:30. in the e-mail that was sent around 02:30. The sender also asked that Bomb Detection and Disposal Squads (BDDS) be deployed, while warning that some of the BDDS staff were under the "supervision of his father".[12]
On the same day, over a dozen colleges of Delhi University including Hansraj College, Gargi College, Ramjas College, Zakir Husain College, Indraprastha College For Women, Lady Irwin College, Kirori Mal College, Bhaskaracharya College, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Sri Venkateswara College, and PGDAV received bomb threat e-mails.[citation needed]
Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University and School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), among other state universities also received the threat.[13]
Investigation[edit]
The bomb threat emails received by schools in Delhi are suspected to have been sent from Budapest, Hungary. An officer announced that the IP address of the anonymous sender of the emails had been traced there. The police also said the emails were sent from mail.ru, a Russian server, and had written to the mailing service company. Delhi police were planning to reach out to law enforcement agencies in Hungary to further investigate the issue. Furthermore, it was mentioned that initial investigations had raised suspicions of a "deeper conspiracy" potentially orchestrated by an ISIS module, aimed at disrupting the ongoing general election.[14]
The lieutenant-governor of Delhi Vinai Kumar Saxena requested a comprehensive report from the state police and ordered them to conduct searches and apprehend the culprits without any oversight. Saxena urged parents not to panic and advised them to cooperate fully with authorities.[15]
Cyber Crime officials launched an investigation into the matter after an FIR was registered by Kanpur Police. They were also trying to ascertain patterns between the mails received by schools in Lucknow, Bengaluru, Jaipur, and Delhi.[8]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Bureau, The Hindu (2024-05-23). "Three Bengaluru hotels receive hoax bomb threat emails". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ Service, Indo-Asian News (2024-05-23). "Some Delhi colleges receive hoax bomb threats". The Siasat Daily. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ "After Mumbai, Bhopal, Goa, Nagpur, Kolkata and Jaipur airports, Delhi's Chacha Nehru Hospital receives bomb threat via email". The Economic Times. 2024-04-30. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ "Panic in Delhi as over 150 schools get bomb threat emails". The Indian Express. 2024-05-01. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ "Bomb scare: Nearly 100 Delhi-NCR schools get bomb threat. Details here". mint. 2024-05-01. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ "Delhi: 4 hospitals receive bomb threat email, search operation underway". mint. 2024-05-14. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ "Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur schools receive hoax bomb threat via emails". The Hindu. 2024-05-15. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ a b "Bomb hoax mailed to 55 schools on anniversary of Jaipur serial blasts". The Hindu. 2024-05-13. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ "Bomb threat calls at Delhi's Lady Shri Ram, Venkateswara College". Hindustan Times. 2024-05-23. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ "North Block receives bomb threat email turns out to be hoax". The Week. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ "Three hotels in Bengaluru receive bomb threat emails, bomb squad dispatched". Hindustan Times. 2024-05-23. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ "Three Bengaluru hotels receive hoax bomb threat emails". The Hindu. 2024-05-23. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ "Lady Sri Ram, Hansraj, Ramjas and other Delhi colleges receive bomb threat e-mails". The New Indian Express. 2024-05-23. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ "Bomb threat emails sent to 150 schools traced to Budapest; larger conspiracy possibly at play, say police". The Hindu. 2024-05-21. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- ^ "Bomb threat in Delhi-NCR schools: L-G Saxena seeks report from police; urges parents not to panic". The Economic Times. 2024-05-01. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2024-05-23.