A rash of hoax phone calls in several states about threat of explosions added to the scare on Monday as back-to-back terror strikes kept urban India on the edge.
NEW DELHI: A rash of hoax phone calls in several states about threat of explosions added to the scare on Monday as back-to-back terror strikes kept urban India on the edge with vital installations and places of worship wrapped in unprecedented security cover.
Security was being constantly reviewed in all major cites with additional forces being deployed in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai in the wake of serial blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad over the week-end. Crowded markets, shopping malls, railway stations and airports were in for extra vigil.
Abandoned and unclaimed objects fuelled panic in a few cities as bomb disposal squads worked overtime to calm people. In cities like Pune, hoax SMSs to avoid busy areas triggered anxious moments.
Security was especially tightened in Kerala in the wake of a phone call to a Kannada TV channel that the state would be targetted by terrorists. Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan convened a high-level meet to review the security preparedness. The famed Sree Krishna temple in Guruvayoor was under special watch.
With a plot to carry out bomb attacks on Independence day on August 15 in Tamil Nadu foiled by police yesterday , security was beefed up in the state.
Hoax calls and panic over abandoned objects were reported in Karnataka, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra. They kept the police on their toes and authorities were taking no chances.
In Madhya Pradesh, another BJP-ruled state, night screening of films were banned as a precautionary measure. There were also reports that devotees have been asked not to carry coconuts or any offerings to temples in the state.
A bomb squad was rushed to the busy Jashodnagar cross road on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai highway after an abandoned tiffin box was found lying on the roadside.
Police said whether the abandoned tiffin is a bomb or not can be determined only after the bomb squad completed investigations.
The high alert in Kerala sounded yesterday will continue for a few more days, even as bomb hoaxes were reported from two places in the state today.
People in Areekkode in Malappuram district panicked for a while this morning after they found an object wrapped in cellophane tape at a bus stop this morning.
The bomb squad was immediately alerted and the object was found to be a burnt out tube of an emergency lamp covered in cellophane tape with an exhausted cellphone battery attached to it. Police said some miscreants would have placed it to spread a scare among people.
Police carried out an intense search in a private college in Pathanamthitta after the college office received an anonymous call threatening that two bombs had been planted on the campus. The threat turned out to be a hoax.
In Kolkata, there was a bomb hoax at the Coal India head quarters.
At around 11 am, two phone calls were received at CIL's administration and the member secretariat's offices wherein the caller claimed that a bomb had been planted at the office and would explode at around 12 noon, CIL sources said.
A bomb squad along with the sniffer dogs was immediately pressed into service. But nothing was found, the sources said.
In Chennai, five persons were arrested for circulating hoax SMSs, warning of bomb blasts in the city.
Commissioner of Police R Sekar warned people against such activities, saying it was a non-bailable offence that could also lead to three years' imprisonment. "Even forwarding such messages is a crime," he said.
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