Ludhiana mayor's office, Diljit Dosanjh's ancestral residence receive bomb threat email

A threatening email claiming bomb blasts at Ludhiana's Mayor's office and Diljit Dosanjh's ancestral residence was received, prompting a search operation but no explosives were found, likely a hoax.

An email threatening bomb blasts at the Ludhiana Mayor's office and the ancestral residence of Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh in the district was received at the municipal corporation office here on Monday, police said.

During the search, no explosives or suspicious items were found and it appears to be another hoax email, they said, adding that security has been stepped up, with cyber teams probing the email's origin.

The police along with bomb disposal and dog squads reached both locations and conducted search operations at the mayor's office and Dosanjh's ancestral residence in Dugri.

Since government office timings across Punjab were revised to morning hours starting Monday, all staff already reported for duty when the threat was received in the morning, the police said.

The entire municipal corporation premises of Zone A were evacuated as a precautionary measure, the police said.

The fresh scare comes close on the heels of similar threats in the past several weeks at multiple places in Punjab and Haryana, where such emails later turned out to be hoaxes.

A few days ago, some schools in Ludhiana had received a similar threat.