Thorough searches were carried out at the Punjab Main Secretariat and the Civil Secretariat this morning after a bomb threat email. The incident was later found to be a hoax, the second such scare in a month.The email was received this morning at the office of two senior IAS officers, claiming that polonium bombs had been planted in the two buildings and would be triggered at 2.11 pm.The two Principal Secretary-ranked officers alerted security agencies. Teams of the Chandigarh Police, civil defence, dog squads, fire brigades and ambulances were requisitioned.The two buildings were thoroughly searched and no suspicious material was found. However, security at the buildings has been beefed up.According to information, the email categorically stated that the gangsters being eliminated in Punjab by the police were actually Khalistani activists and that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann would have to play a price for it.Meanwhile, the District Court Complex in Sector 43 also received a hoax bomb threat, triggering searches.The scares are the latest in a series of similar threats received in Chandigarh, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala.
