After schools, hospitals — now, colleges receive bomb threats

NEW DELHI: Officials reported that over a dozen colleges, including Delhi University’s prestigious Lady Shri Ram College, Hansraj College, and Ramjas College, received bomb threat emails on Thursday. This incident follows a similar threat that caused alarm in the North Block the previous day.

According to a Delhi Fire Service (DFS) official, the first call about the bomb threat at LSR College was received at 4:38 pm, prompting the dispatch of two fire tenders. Subsequently, other colleges also alerted authorities.

Local police, a bomb disposal squad, a bomb detection team, and a dog squad arrived at LSR College and conducted thorough searches, but nothing suspicious has been found so far, the official said.

LSR Principal Suman Sharma said the entire campus has been sanitised.

“We received the bomb threat e-mail in the afternoon today. Immediately, the police were informed and they sent a bomb (disposal) squad. The search operation went on for 2 to 3 hours and the entire campus has been sanitised,” Sharma said.

According to a police officer, over a dozen colleges in Delhi, including Lady Shri Ram College (LSR), 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 College, received bomb threat emails. The sender marked these colleges in the CC of the email.

Additionally, Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University and the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), among other state universities, also received threats.

The officer reported that all campuses are being searched, but nothing suspicious has been found. LSR was the first to notify the police and fire department about the email, followed by other colleges.

Recently, bomb threat emails have targeted many establishments in Delhi, including schools and hospitals. Chacha Nehru Hospital received a threat on April 30, while over 150 schools got threats from a Russia-based mailing service on May 1.

On May 12, twenty hospitals, IGI Airport, and Northern Railways’ CPRO office received threats from a Cyprus-based service.

Seven hospitals and Tihar Jail received similar threats from the same service on May 14. with agency inputs