Six Delhi schools receive bomb threat mail, checks underway
New Delhi (PTI): Six schools in Delhi received bomb threats over email early on Friday, triggering a multi-agency search of their premises, officials said.
The latest threats come on the back of at least 44 schools receiving similar emails on December 9. Police had declared those threats as hoaxes.
Reacting to the development, former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal pointed out that it was the second such instance within a week and asked how these bomb threats would affect the children.
A Delhi Fire Services official said, "We received calls (regarding the threat emails) from Bhatnagar International School in Paschim Vihar (4:21 am), Cambridge School in Shri Niwas Puri (6:23 am) and DPS Amar Colony in East of Kailash (6:35 am)."
"(Calls were also received) from the South Delhi Public School in Defence Colony (7:57 am), Delhi Police Public School in Safdarjung (8:02 am) and Venkateshwar Global School in Rohini (8:30 am)," he added.
The fire department, police and bomb detection teams, along with dog squads, have reached the schools and are conducting checks, the official said.
The schools' authorities sent messages to guardians to not send their wards for classes or take them back if they already reached.
A police source said the emails were received at 12:54 am, with the sender mentioning "parent-teachers' meeting" and "sports day" activities in the schools.
The sender also mentioned that the "schools will face bomb blasts" on Friday and Saturday, the source said.
A police official said checks were underway.
Cambridge School principal Madhavi Goswami said she was checking the school mail, as routine, when she saw the threat.
"I informed the police and they worked proactively. We were assured by the Delhi Police about the investigation. We informed the parents that classes would be online today," she said.
Karmveer, a guard at South Delhi Public School, said he received a message at 7:20 am, following which they started to ask the parents coming to school with their children to return.
"The school administration declared that all the students should be asked to return. Only a few children were already inside the campus and they were also sent back," he told PTI Videos.
AAP supremo Kejriwal, who had on December 9 hit out at the Delhi Police and Union Home Minister Amit Shah over that day's bomb threats, shared a news clip about the latest threats on his official X handle.
"This is the second time this week that Delhi schools have received bomb threats, which is extremely serious and worrying. If this continues, how badly will it affect the children? What will happen to their studies?" he asked in Hindi in the caption of the post.
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Rajnath to top commanders: Outmaneuver adversaries with strategic surprise
Jaipur/New Delhi (PTI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday directed the top military commanders of the three services to integrate an "element of surprise" into modern warfare to outmaneuver India's adversaries and bolster strategic posture.
In his address at the joint commanders conference in Jaipur, Singh also described the Operation Sindoor as a testament to the "swift, precise, and joint response" of the Indian armed forces to safeguard national interests and called upon the military to remain ready to deal with any security challenges.
In their two-day deliberations, the commanders carried out a comprehensive review of the combat preparedness of the military in the wake of the evolving regional security situation.
Operation Sindoor was a demonstration of India's growing capabilities and a symbol of the nation's collective resolve and new military ethos, Singh said, a day after the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor.
He also unveiled a 'Joint Doctrine for Integrated Communication Architecture' that is aimed at strengthening doctrinal clarity, interoperability and integrated communications across the armed forces in future multidomain operations.
The joint commanders' conference, themed 'Military Capability in New Domains', brought together the top leadership of the defence ministry and the three services to deliberate on emerging security challenges and future readiness.
Comprehensive deliberations were held on future warfare, multidomain operations, technological transformation and joint capability development.
The conference witnessed extensive discussions on cognitive warfare, cyber resilience against evolving quantum and AI-enabled threats, military capability development in emerging domains, indigenous innovation and AI-enabled warfighting concepts.
It was attended by Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh and Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh among others.
In his remarks, Singh asked the commanders to remain "future-ready" by learning from the operation as well as the current global security landscape.
He underscored the need to strengthen capabilities in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, data analytics and secure communication networks to stay prepared in the rapidly evolving geopolitical security scenario. He emphasised that future conflicts will increasingly be shaped by hybrid threats, information dominance and operations conducted simultaneously across cyber, space, electromagnetic and cognitive domains, according to an official readout.
Highlighting the transformative impact of emerging technologies, Singh stressed on the importance of ensuring integrated national preparedness across all spectrums of conflict, it said.
Singh's remarks at the conference came a day after the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor.
The defence minister appreciated the progress achieved in enhancing jointness, integration and technological adoption across the three services, the readout noted.
Singh said that jointness constitutes a pivotal dimension within the transformative changes sweeping across the global defence sector.
"Future wars will not be won solely through weaponry, but through innovative thinking and enhanced synergy," he said.
The defence minister exhorted the commanders to cultivate the "element of surprise" to remain unpredictable to the nation's adversaries and secure a strategic edge in any given situation.
He, however, urged them to remain vigilant of the element of surprise of the enemy and always stay two steps ahead.
Singh also reiterated the Narendra Modi government's commitment to enhancing the capabilities of the defence forces through state-of-the-art weapons and platforms. He added that special focus is being laid on research in niche domains.
During the conference, he released a documentary film on Operation Sindoor.
The film reaffirms the nation's and defence forces' commitment to operational preparedness and decisive national response capabilities.
Demonstrations of advanced systems and platforms developed for intelligence fusion, operational planning and information management were also showcased during the conference reflecting growing integration of cutting-edge technologies into joint operational structures, according to the defence ministry.
The discussions will contribute significantly towards shaping India's future military transformation and integrated operational preparedness, it said.
