Kolkata, February 26 – Passport offices in Kolkata received bomb threats on Thursday, following a similar scare at several courts across West Bengal over the past two days.
On Thursday, bomb threats were sent to the passport offices in the Brabourne Road and Anandpur areas via email. The threats claimed that a bomb was present in the office. Following this, both offices were evacuated with employees rushing out in panic.
Soon, police and bomb squad members were informed. They immediately rushed to the scene. A search is being conducted with the help of police dogs. So far, no bombs have been found at either location.
At the same time, similar threats via email were sent to multiple post offices in different districts at almost the same time. Following the start of work on Thursday, an email was sent to the Howrah Maidan post office. The threat claimed that a bomb was present in the office. The entire post office was immediately evacuated. Police and bomb squad members arrived at the scene and began a search. Similar threats were also sent to the Asansol Head Post Office in the West Midnapore district and the Basirhat Head Post Office in the North 24 Parganas district.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, similar emails, threatening to blow up courts across the state, including the Calcutta High Court, were sent to judges.
On Tuesday, bomb threat emails were sent to the Calcutta High Court, the City Sessions Court in Kolkata, the Suri Court in Birbhum, and the Asansol Court in the West Burdwan district. On the same day, panic spread in the Hooghly District Court. However, despite searching throughout the day, the police did not find anything suspicious.
Following Tuesday, there was a bomb scare at the Asansol District and Sessions Court on Wednesday as well. A threatening email reached the West Burdwan District Judge. According to sources, the email read, "A bomb has been placed in the court. It will explode after some time."
The same situation unfolded at the Suri District Court in Birbhum.
According to court sources, the threatening message was sent to the district judge. The threatening email claimed that RDX was kept in the court premises. However, the police did not find anything suspicious during any of the searches.