Tirupati’s ISKCON temple gets bomb threat—What we know

Tirupati’s ISKCON temple in Andhra Pradesh received a bomb threat on Sunday. Andhra Pradesh police said that temple authorities have registered an FIR after receiving the threat mail, claiming that Pakistan-based terrorists had threatened to blow up the temple.

The authorities said the police conducted inspections with the bomb and dog squad and have beefed up security in the city.

No explosives or other objectionable items were recovered, the police said, suspecting it to be yet another incident of hoax mail threat. It is important to note that this is the fourth hoax mail the temple town have received in the last three days.

The Andhra Pradesh police said they reacted swiftly after receiving complaints. Its teams conducted thorough checks. But they (fake email threats) turned out to be fake.

The city police further said they have booked the cases regarding the hoax mails and investigations into these are going on.

A senior police official said they are investigating the cases with the help of the cyber crimes wing.

Earlier on Saturday, October 26, two prominent hotels in the city received bomb threats, which the police later confirmed as hoax.

According to New 24, the threat email mentioned, “Due to the impact created by Jaffer Sadiq of DMK’s arrest in the drug case, TN DGP Shankar Jiwal IPS has paired with Pak ISI cells in Coimbatore to carry out these blasts in order to divert attention from Mrs. Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi Chettiar.”

“Evacuate premise and call BDSS (Disposal Squad) to defuse IEDs. Contact Mr. PV Kalyanasundaram of DMK Arivalayam and for a Pink Envelope we’ve sent him with videos of our story as well as DMK family involvement. Afzal Guru will be re-born! Al-Badr! Only the BDSS has left IEDs in school premises in the name of checking!,” the mail adderd.

Two days before that, October 24, four other hotels and Tirupati airport in the town received bomb threat alerts, which turned out to be hoaxes, News 18 reported.

The hoax threat reportedly mentioned the alleged drug trafficking network kingpin Jaffer Sadiq, who was arrested in Tamil Nadu by the Narcotics Control Bureau and the Enforcement Directorate.

The city was put on high alert by the police to prevent any bomb threat-related incident. Tirupati police have reassured the public that authorities are diligently working to identify those responsible for the threats.