The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Public, police and bomb hoax calls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 24, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Public, police and bomb hoax calls

Police say installing caller ID on landline phones will help end the menace of bomb hoax calls, writes L Srikrishna

Anonymous calls about bombs planted in a building here or a building there have become a "routine" affair for the public and police in the city.

Whenever such calls or letters are received, the police control room alerts the bomb detection and disposal squad to check out the leads. In most cases, they turn out to be a hoax.

Targets

Many public buildings, leading corporate houses, reputed banks and educational institutions in and around Chennai have been the target of such callers.

The railways and other services are also not spared by the mischief mongers, leading to delayed departures and arrivals.

In recent months calls included one about a bomb planted on the President's special flight, a threat to Reserve Bank of India building, to the Chief Minister's residence, to a foreign embassy office in Anna Salai. The list goes on.

Experts handling bomb threat cases told The Hindu that on an average, they received three to four such calls a month, which means around 35-45 calls per annum.

"Thorough examination of the buildings is a cumbersome process, but we cannot ignore them or take them lightly. Right from evacuating people from the premises, it is a challenge for us to manage the situation until the check is completed," they said.

News spreads

"Recently, we received a call that bombs would explode in a school in a suburban locality. Even before the bomb detection team reached the spot, the news had spread like a forest fire. Parents rushed to the school and took away their wards. There was panic and uneasy calm all over. But there was no bomb and it was a hoax."

Similarly, the threat call made to Chief Minister's residence last week too turned out to be hoax, they pointed out.

The officers, however, pointed out that it was pretty easy to end the bomb threat call menace, if the public cooperated.

They said that not many buildings had caller identity attached to the landline telephones installed in their premises. This enabled the mischief-makers to dial the police and leave a message before abruptly disconnecting.

Either the telephones should have in-built caller identity facility or a standalone attachment should be provided. If caller ID facilities are popularised, the police could track the callers with ease, they said. This would also discourage miscreants from making such calls, they said.

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