Andhra: Tirupati hotels, temple receive hoax bomb threats

Two hotels and the Varadaraja temple in the town received emails claiming that bombs had been planted on their premises. After the hotel and temple management alerted the police, law enforcement agencies conducted thorough searches with the assistance of sniffer dogs and bomb disposal squads, but no explosives were found.

Tirupati: Two hotels and a temple in Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati received fresh bomb threats in the name of terrorist groups on Sunday but all of them turned out to be a hoax, police said.

It was for a third consecutive day that hotels received threatening emails.

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Two hotels and the Varadaraja temple in the town received emails stating that bombs were planted on their premises. After the management of the hotels and the temple informed the police, the law enforcement agencies with the help of sniffer dogs and bomb disposal squads searched the premises but found no explosives.

The threatening emails were received in the name of DMK leader Jaffer Sadiq and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The management of two hotels had received an email on Saturday, stating that bombs were planted in the hotels. Police with the help of a dog squad thoroughly searched the premises but found nothing suspicious. Two more hotels received the emails on Sunday. For the first time, a temple in the town also received a bomb threat. After a thorough search, the threat proved a hoax.

Police officials have informed the public that there was no need for any panic.

On Friday, three hotels in the temple town had received similar bomb threats via emails. All the emails mention that due to the recent arrest of Jaffer Sadiq of the DMK, “international pressure” has mounted.

Jaffer Sadiq, a former member of Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK, was arrested in February this year, by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on charges of smuggling narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

The email also links Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to the case. Police said they were continuing the investigation to identify the sender of these emails.

The hotels and temple in Tirupati received the bomb threats close on the heels of threats targeting flights and CRPF schools in different parts of the country.