Pune passport office hit by third hoax bomb threat in five months as similar emails target nationwide offices
The Regional Passport Office on Baner-Pashan Link Road in Pune received its third hoax bomb threat in five months on Wednesday, as similar threatening emails were sent to multiple passport and post offices across the country.
Police said the emails, which warned of explosions, were sent using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to mask the sender’s IP address, making it difficult to trace the source, like the earlier emails.
“The email, received on Wednesday morning, threatened that a ‘cyanide bomb blast’ would be triggered at a specified time. This is the third such email we have received since February 26. Each has been sent from a different email address and contains random, cryptic messages. The emails follow a similar pattern and appear to be nothing more than acts of mischief. However, as a law enforcement agency, we are duty-bound to treat every threat seriously and carry out exhaustive searches to rule out any risk,” an officer said, adding that nothing suspicious was found in the search at the passport office.
The first hoax threat at the same office was reported on February 26, and the second on April 16. Both times, extensive searches yielded no explosives. Police are continuing investigations to identify the sender, who is believed to be using encrypted communication methods to evade detection.
Authorities have urged the public to remain vigilant but not panic, emphasising that all threats are being handled with utmost seriousness while maintaining operational security.
