In a significant development, Delhi Police has registered as many as six FIRs in connection with bomb threats to several domestic and international flights in the last two days and launched a probe into the matter. An FIR has been lodged at the IGI airport police station as well following a series of bomb threats made through social media targeting various flights over the past two days. According to a police official, these threats were aimed at both domestic and international flights scheduled to fly to different states and countries.
Among the affected flights was a Bengaluru-bound Akasa Air flight carrying over 180 passengers, which had to return to Delhi following a bomb threat. In total, nearly a dozen Indian flights, including some international routes, were threatened. However, after thorough inspections, nothing suspicious was found on any of the planes. The issue of repeated hoax threats came before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, where the civil aviation secretary informed parliamentarians that investigations are underway to identify the culprits responsible for these fake alerts, and strict action will be taken against them.
Home Ministry seeks reports on matter
Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Home Affairs sought a report from the Ministry of Civil Aviation on a series of bomb threats to various airlines across the country. In the last 48 hours, at least 13 bomb threats have been received by various airlines on domestic and international routes, all found to be hoaxes.
A senior official has confirmed that MHA has instructed the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Bureau of Civil Aviation, National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) to submit a report on bomb threats that have been received recently. However, senior officials of MoCA have informed MHA officials regarding the matter and also provided timely updates. The official said that they have also alerted cyber units to be on alert and track the social media accounts posting threats. Most of the accounts that have posted threats were found to be operated from outside the country. They have got these accounts suspended as soon they come to notice.
