The Hindu Business Line : Bomb threats keep Bangalore on its toes

A fax was received by the local media offices warning of attacks at the Chief Minister, Mr N. Dharam Singh's residence and a prestigious hotel in the city on New Year's eve.

BOMB THREAT: IBM security personnel asking employees to leave the campus in Bangalore on Friday. — K. Murali Kumar

Bangalore , Dec. 30

THE mood was one of anxiety in Bangalore on Friday.

Bomb threats , first to a five-star hotel and later to an IT facility, heightened the tension in the city even as it was recovering from the terror attack at the Indian Institute of Science on Wednesday.

A fax was received by the local media offices warning of attacks at the Chief Minister, Mr N. Dharam Singh's residence and a prestigious hotel in the city on New Year's eve.

The fax claimed that the attack would be one of the most "systematic execution ever to take place in the country."

The police have stepped up security in the city.

Police are working in close cooperation with the Intelligence Bureau and with their counterparts in other States, including Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, where similar terrorist incidents attacks had taken place, said Mr Ajay Kumar Singh, Police Commissioner, Bangalore.

In the afternoon, the IT facility received a bomb threat. This is just one of the many which the police received. Speaking to presspersons, Mr Ajay Kumar Singh, said, "We got a few calls. All turned out to be hoaxes."

About 17,000 people were working at the facility when the call came in.

Immediately, the companies evacuated their employees.

Most companies in the Embassy Golf Links Business Park, on the bustling Airport Road, are development centres for blue-chip companies.

Spokespersons for IBM and Microsoft's Global Technology Service Centre (GTSC), established in the facility, declined to comment.

The police also released a sketch of the suspected assailant in the IISc attack.