Gujarat HC, several district courts and govt offices get bomb threats; nothing suspicious found
Ahmedabad (PTI): The Gujarat High Court, several district courts and some collector offices in the state received bomb threats through emails on Tuesday, prompting the authorities to conduct thorough searches, in which nothing suspicious was found anywhere, officials said.
Apart from the HC, four district courts and two collector offices received bomb threats, while a sessions court in Ahmedabad reported a similar threat on Monday, they said.
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"The Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad received an email threatening to blow up its premises using RDX. Police personnel, the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) and a dog squad conducted a thorough search of the premises after evacuating the building. No suspicious material was found," Sola police station inspector K N Bhukan said.
Following the security checks, entry into the court premises was resumed, Bhukan added.
The district collector's office in Gandhinagar, the state capital, received a bomb threat on Tuesday.
"An email was received directing the evacuation of the premises by lunch time. Police were immediately alerted, and a comprehensive search of the office was carried out," an official from the Gandhinagar collector office said.
The BDDS later confirmed that no suspicious items were found at the site, the official said.
Similar bomb threats were also reported by the courts in Surat, Anand, Rajkot and Bharuch, as well as the collector's office in Bharuch.
The Ahmedabad City Civil and Sessions Court had also received a similar bomb threat through email on Monday, they said.
In all these cases, security agencies conducted checks, but did not find any suspicious material.
Police have launched an investigation to identify the sender of the threatening emails.
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11k litres of milk poured into Narmada river after religious event; environmentalists see red
Sehore (PTI): Around 11,000 litres of milk were poured into Narmada river, often called the lifeline of Madhya Pradesh, in Sehore district on the culmination of a 21-day religious event as part of a sanctification ritual, prompting environmentalists to flag its negative impact on the ecosystem.
The event concluded at Satdev village in Bherunda area, located about 90 km from the district headquarters, with a 'mahayagna' on Wednesday.
The milk was offered to the river as part of rituals and prayers for the purity of the waters, the well-being of pilgrims and prosperity, organisers said.
The milk was brought in tankers to the riverbank and later poured into the flowing water amid chanting of mantras in the presence of a crowd of devotees.
However, environmentalists raised concerns over the practice, warning of its potential ecological impact.
"Such large quantities of organic matter can deplete dissolved oxygen in water, adversely affecting the river ecosystem. These impact local communities dependent on the river for drinking water and threaten aquatic life as well as domestic animals," noted environmentalist and wildlife activist Ajay Dube said.
Religious offerings should be symbolic and mindful, he asserted.
Renowned environmentalist Subhash Pandey said 11,000 litres of milk acts as a significant organic pollutant.
"It is highly oxygen-demanding and can lead to oxygen depletion, aquatic mortality, eutrophication (process of plants growing on river surface) and loss of potability. These effects are predictable from dairy-effluent chemistry and have been documented in similar incidents worldwide," Pandey pointed out.
Narmada originates at Amarkantak in the state and traverses 1,312 km westward to Maharashtra and Gujarat, emptying into the Arabian Sea via the Gulf of Cambay.
It is the largest west-flowing river in the peninsula, passing through a rift valley, and acts as a crucial water source for irrigation in MP, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
