The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : How police react to bomb threats

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Thursday, Dec 06, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

How police react to bomb threats

L. Srikrishna

Following the blasts in Uttar Pradesh, Central intelligence agencies have alerted key States, including Tamil Nadu

Chennai: “Threats cannot be taken lightly any longer”… is how the police react to bomb threat calls nowadays. Be it bomb threats made over phone or those over e-mail to any institution or organisation, police do not dismiss them as the work of a prankster. Instead, they conduct an exhaustive drill even after establishing that the call was a hoax.

Such an approach has been necessitated following explosions in the last few months in different parts of the country, including the serial blast in a few local courts in Uttar Pradesh. Following the blasts in Uttar Pradesh, the Central intelligence agencies had alerted key States across the country, including Tamil Nadu.

The Director General of Police of Tamil Nadu directed the police force in the State to gear up to face any eventuality in the wake of an alleged e-mail that talked about explosives being planted in K.K.Nagar and that they would explode on November 30.

Not in a mood to dismiss it as nuisance, the police conducted drills at various places. “As a precautionary measure, we alerted shopping malls, cinema houses and educational institutions to be more cautious and deployed adequate personnel in plainclothes,” said S. Lakshmi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (T.Nagar).

However, the police could do little to stop people from getting panicky.

A pointer to this was the holiday declared by a few schools in K.K.Nagar on Friday following apprehensions raised and appeals made by many parents.

The police, for its part, however, went about its job to ensure calm. The Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad police, with the aid of sniffer dogs, which were pressed into service, found no explosive object during the searches, police added.

Commissioner of Police G. Nanchil Kumaran told reporters that the police were geared to face any eventuality and warned of severe action against pranksters and law offenders.

The city police, however, are good at zeroing in on the pranksters, as was evident when its cyber crime wing, some months ago, nabbed a youth who allegedly made a call threatening that explosives had been planted in the aircraft of the then President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, who was on a visit to the State. Within hours, the caller was tracked and arrested.

In the wake of increased threat perceptions, the emphasis of the security agencies is on widening intelligence network beyond State boundaries. When the inputs are received, they are forwarded to the law and order police, an officer said.

In police parlance, it is called “alert” message. Though the message is general, it helps the machinery be prepared, but there are also times when specific alerts are given, he added.

A senior IPS officer attached to the Central intelligence agencies said most of the seizures of arms and ammunition along coastal areas were the result of dissemination of information from intelligence authorities.

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