A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to Dera Sachkhand Ballan in Punjab, bomb threats were received on Saturday for the sect’s headquarters and two schools in Jalandhar, triggering security checks and an investigation by the police.
According to officials, the threatening emails were sent to the schools, but the text of the messages made a direct threat to the Dera Ballan. Police teams conducted security checks at the school premises and bomb disposal squads were called in.
There were no students on campus as it was a holiday. The prime minister is scheduled to visit the Dera Ballan on Sunday on the occasion of Guru Ravidas Jayanti.
Police said they were verifying the threat emails and that the matter was currently under investigation. The incident follows a series of similar threats reported earlier this week.
On Wednesday, several schools in Chandigarh received bomb threats, though subsequent checks found nothing suspicious.
Over the past few months, comparable threats have been reported in Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala in Punjab, and in Ambala in Haryana.
In most cases, the messages later turned out to be hoaxes, but each incident prompted heightened security measures and emergency checks.