Email threat cites blast timings at Punjab Secretariat, Chandigarh District Court; nothing suspicious found in searches

The email specified blast timings, claiming an explosion would occur at the Secretariat at 2.11 pm and at the court complex at 3.11 pm.

Soon after the email was received around 11 am, police teams, bomb detection and disposal squads, quick reaction teams, fire brigade units, and forensic personnel rushed to both sites. The complexes were immediately evacuated, entry points sealed, and anti-sabotage checks carried out floor by floor.

After hours of inspection, authorities issued clearance certificates declaring the buildings safe and allowing normal functioning to resume.

A senior police officer said preliminary technical analysis indicates the emails were routed through VPN servers and sent from email IDs created nearly a decade ago. “Our cyber teams are analysing metadata, login patterns, and server trails. We are verifying credentials linked to these accounts to trace the accused,” the officer said.

Police officers noted that similar hoax threats have surfaced repeatedly in the Tricity region over the past few weeks.

Previously, the Punjab and Haryana Secretariat received similar emails warning of explosions, which triggered large-scale evacuations and searches that ultimately turned up nothing suspicious.

On separate occasions, multiple private schools across Chandigarh and Mohali received threatening emails claiming bombs had been planted on campus. Those incidents also led to emergency drills, student evacuations, and intensive sweeps by bomb squads, but no explosives were recovered.

The police said the recurrence of such emails suggests a pattern aimed at causing disruption and fear. While the latest message appears to be a hoax at first glance, officials stressed that every threat is treated as real until proven otherwise, and that a cyber investigation is underway to identify the sender and determine the exact origin of the email.