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Our Bureau

Members of Parliament waiting outside after the House was evacuated following a bomb hoax on Friday. - V. Sudershan

New Delhi , Dec. 16

BOTH the Houses of Parliament were abruptly adjourned just before noon on Friday on receipt of an e-mailed threat of bombs going off in the building.

The entire complex was immediately vacated and after a two-hour search, security agencies declared that it was hoax call and no bomb had been found.

Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were in session when the information reached the presiding officers about the bomb threat. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, was also in his office within the Parliament House complex and had just finished a meeting with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa. He was immediately whisked away by security officials to his South Block office about a kilometre away.

E-mail from Tirunelveli: The authorities later claimed that the e-mail had originated from Tirunelveli in southern Tamil Nadu and was sent through the Sify domain. It said that there will be explosions at 11.46 a.m. in United States Consulates and the Parliament House and added "if you can stop, try and stop it.'' The e-mail also said "long live Osama bin Laden.''

Parliament later resumed its normal functioning at 3 p.m.

The Parliament House is heavily guarded and has very sophisticated electronic and other security apparatus installed within the premises which was specially fortified after the December 13, 2001 attack when terrorists gate-crashed into the complex in an RDX-loaded car. A major tragedy was averted because of the presence of mind of security personnel who quickly closed the gates to the building while armed guards outside shot dead the terrorists.

More Stories on : Politics | Terrorism

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