New Delhi: Several private schools in Bengaluru were emailed bomb threats early on April 8, leading city police and bomb disposal squads to conduct searches.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Bengaluru East) Dr. Subramanyeshwara Rao was quoted by The Hindu as having confirmed that the emails were “mostly a hoax”. However, police took them seriously and did not leave anything to chance, he said.
Police evacuated all schools which received the threats, located in the east and southeastern parts of the city. Two were combed and declared free of any danger.
The email received by the seven schools read:
“A very powerful bomb has been planted in your school, attention is not a joke, this is not a joke, a very powerful bomb has been planted in your school, immediately call the police and sappers, hundreds of lives may suffer, including yours, do not delay, now everything is only in your hands! [sic].”
Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had a day earlier said he was “not surprised” with Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri heaping praise on a college student who defended her right to wear hijab inside the classroom.
“There is nothing to be surprised about. Certain issues are unnecessarily raised by going against the law of land and making an issue out of it. Some forces have been continuously creating chaos and confusion among masses. As part of it, the Al Qaeda has expressed its views explicitly,” Bommai told reporters after returning from New Delhi.
The Congress, meanwhile, lashed out at Al-Qaeda for wading into the hijab controversy and said the banned terrorist organisation has no business to comment about the the internal affairs of the country.
The party also charged BJP and right wing organisations with trying to ‘polarise’ and ‘vitiate’ the atmosphere of Karnataka with an eye on the 2023 assembly polls.