Bomb threat emails sent to Ahmedabad schools ahead of voting traced to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: Emails threatening blasts sent to at least 36 Ahmedabad-based schools on the eve of the May 7 voting have been traced to Pakistan, the police said on Friday, labelling them as an attempt to spread fear among the people ahead of polling. Lok Sabha elections for 25 of the 26 seats in Gujarat were held in a single phase on May 7. The candidate in Surat has already won unopposed. “The emails were sent from ‘mail.ru’ domain, in which a man impersonating himself as Tauheed Liaquat sent them to all the schools with the aim of spreading fear among voters and Indian citizens,” the Ahmedabad crime branch said in a press statement.

Liaquat had also assumed another identity as Hamad Javed. The person with these names was operating from Faisalabad district of Pakistan, Joint Commissioner of Police Sharad Singhal said. The same person has created various identities on different social media platforms, one of them being that of Hamad Javed. These social media platforms are used to spread anti-India messages, rumours and fear among Indians, he said. “It is possible that the name was created to spread fear and rumour. But one thing is certain the mails were sent using mail.ru domain and the location was traced to the Faisalabad cantonment area in Pakistan,” he said.

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36 schools received threat

The name of this accused has also been revealed during a honeytrap investigation by another agency, the official said. Further investigation is underway and agencies like the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS), National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) have been contacted, Singhal said. Several of the 36 schools that had received the threat email from the Russian domain ‘mail.ru’ were designated as polling booths. The email was received on May 6, a day before the voting in the city where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah exercised their franchise.

The content of the email was similar to the one sent to schools in Delhi recently. It was sent using the Russian domain ‘mail.ru’, and no explosive or anything suspicious was found after the schools were searched. A technical surveillance was then initiated to trace the sender of the email, said the official. The schools that received the threat email included DPS and Anand Niketan in Bopal, Udgam School on SG Highway, Calorx School in Ghatlodia, Kendriya Vidyalaya at Chandkheda and Army Cantonment on Airport Road.