18 dist courts in UP get bomb threat mails

Lucknow: Lower courts in at least 18 districts of Uttar Pradesh received bomb threat emails early Monday, triggering heightened security measures and intensive searches across court premises.Among the districts that received the threats were Lucknow, Ayodhya, Moradabad, Azamgarh, Meerut, Amroha, and Varanasi, along with several others, officials said.According to police sources, the threatening emails were sent in the early hours of the day, warning of explosions inside district court complexes. Court authorities immediately alerted local police and administrative officials. Bomb disposal squads, dog squads, and local police teams conducted thorough searches of the court premises in the morning before regular proceedings began. Entry and exit points were monitored, and litigants and lawyers underwent strict security screening.Officials said similar threat emails were received two days earlier as well. On Friday, four district courts in the state also received comparable bomb threats via email, raising concerns over a possible coordinated attempt to spread panic and disrupt judicial functioning. Cybercrime teams are tracing the IP addresses and email origins. No suspicious object has been recovered so far, police said, in any of the district courts. A unit of the Anti-Terrorism Squad is conducting a probe into the threat mails sent to the districts. Senior police officials at the DGP HQ said they were monitoring the situation in all the districts, and the cyber cell was asked to assist the probe along with the district police units and ATS. The district court complex in Lucknow received another bomb threat via email on Monday morning. The threatening message reportedly mentioned Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), intensifying concerns among authorities. This was the second such threat directed at the Lucknow court within 3 days.DCP (West Zone) Vishwajeet Srivastava said as soon as the email was received, police and district administration officials swung into action. Teams from the local police, dog squad, and bomb disposal squad rushed to the court complex and launched an extensive search operation. The entire premises were thoroughly checked, and security was tightened at all entry and exit points. However, after detailed inspection, no suspicious object or person was found, officials confirmed.