Two days after a gunman opened fire at a science conference killing a professor and injuring four delegates, a letter threatening bomb blasts has kept India's information technology (IT) hub Bangalore on high alert.
In the letter addressed to police and published in part in local newspapers yesterday, a man calling himself Moinuddin warned there would be bomb blasts on New Year's Eve at a five-star hotel and at the residence of Karnataka state's chief minister.
Police have yet to receive the letter which was sent to newspapers but although regarding it as a likely hoax were taking no chances.
"We have not received any such fax or message. At the same time, we do take such threats, even if hoax, seriously and prepare for any eventuality," a top police official told reporters, asking not to be named.
"We continue to maintain high alert in the city and across the state. There is no cause for panic," said B.S. Sial, director general of police for the southern state of Karnataka, of which Bangalore is the capital.
"As on every New Year's Eve we have extra police force deployed in and around the city to prevent any untoward incident," Sial said.
Police and a top official on Thursday said that Wednesday's attack on the science conference, in which a gunmen sprayed bullets indiscriminately at delegates, was likely the work of militants.
"Preliminary investigations by the city police and vital clues available so far indicate that it was a terror attack," Karnataka chief minister Dharam Singh said on Thursday.
Police officials are hoping the injured will provide further clues to the identity of the assailant.
No individual or organization has claimed responsibility for the shootout at the Indian Institute of Science, which killed New Delhi-based mathematics professor M.C. Puri and caused pandemonium among the 300 scientists attending the conference.
"The motive appears to create panic or fear psychosis in a city like Bangalore, which has gained a global reputation as the nerve center of IT, defense, science and space activities," Singh said.
India's space organization, headquartered at Bangalore, sounded a red alert at its institutions across the country and the government stepped up security at important technology firms in the city, officials said.
Bangalore, an outsourcing hub, is home to more than 1,500 domestic and foreign technology firms. India's intelligence agencies have in the past warned of terrorist attacks on these companies.
RSS