Punjab Secretariat receives bomb threat e-mail; search finds it to be hoax

The Punjab Secretariat received a bomb threat e-mail on Thursday, prompting the authorities to carry out an anti-sabotage check, officials said.

Police, fire brigade officials, bomb squads, dog squads and an ambulance were rushed to the Secretariat building but even after an extensive search operation, no suspicious material or explosives were found, they said.

Police have nevertheless stepped up security around the Secretariat.

Last month too, the Punjab Secretariat received a similar threat mail, which turned out to be a hoax.

The Punjab and Haryana Secretariat is located at Sector-1 in Chandigarh, which is a high-security zone.

Notably, the latest scare comes close on the heels of similar threats in Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Haryana schools. All these threats turned out to be hoaxes.