On the eve of the Lok Sabha elections held on May 7, at least 36 Ahmedabad-based schools received threatening emails about the blast, causing widespread fear among the populace. The police have traced these emails back to Pakistan and labelled them as an attempt to spread fear ahead of polling.
The Lok Sabha elections for 25 of the 26 seats in Gujarat were conducted in a single phase. The candidate in Surat had already won unopposed.
The Ahmedabad crime branch revealed in a press statement that the emails were sent from the ‘mail.ru’ domain by a man impersonating himself as Tauheed Liaquat. The intent behind these emails was to spread fear among voters and Indian citizens.
Liaquat had also assumed another identity, Hamad Javed, who was operating from the Faisalabad district of Pakistan, according to Joint Commissioner of Police Sharad Singhal. This individual has created various identities on different social media platforms, including that of Hamad Javed, to spread anti-India messages, rumours and fear among Indians.
Singhal confirmed that the emails were sent using the mail.ru domain and the location was traced to the Faisalabad cantonment area in Pakistan. The name of the accused has also been revealed during a honeytrap investigation by another agency.
Further investigation is underway with agencies like the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS), National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) being contacted.
Several of the 36 schools that received the threat email from the Russian domain ‘mail.ru’ were designated as polling booths. The email was received on May 6, a day before the voting in the city where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah exercised their franchise.
The content of the email was similar to the one sent to schools in Delhi recently. No explosive or anything suspicious was found after the schools were searched. A technical surveillance was then initiated to trace the sender of the email.
The schools that received the threat email included DPS and Anand Niketan in Bopal, Udgam School on SG Highway, Calorx School in Ghatlodia, Kendriya Vidyalaya at Chandkheda and Army Cantonment on Airport Road.
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