Mandi/Chamba/Dharamshala/Shimla:
Panic gripped Himachal Pradesh on Monday after two government medical colleges—Mandi and Chamba—received e-mail threats warning of blasts on their campuses.
The district administration and Himachal Pradesh Police immediately evacuated patients and staff, cordoned off the hospitals, and pressed in dog squads and bomb disposal teams.
Doctors and nurses were on their toes and in panic rattled by the threats.
After hours of combing operations, nothing suspicious was found. Authorities later declared the threat a hoax.
“We did not find anything on the premises. Law and order has been restored,” said SP Chamba, Abhishek Yadav.
This is not the first such scare. Since April this year, a series of bomb threat e-mails have landed in official inboxes—from warnings to blow up the Mandi DC office, the state secretariat in Shimla, courts, and now medical colleges.
Despite cybercrime units being roped in, investigators have not been able to trace the origin of these mails or establish whether it’s the handiwork of a single mischief-maker or an organised network.
The latest threats also come just ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dharamshala, where he is scheduled to review the flood devastation.
The state has already declared itself disaster-affected, with losses pegged at over ₹15,000 crore to Rs 18000 Crore between 2023 and 2025.
While the bomb scare ended without incident, patients and their families were caught in needless chaos, highlighting how such anonymous e-mail threats can disrupt public life and strain security resources.
Police officials say cyber investigations are on, but the state has yet to crack the mystery of who is behind the repeated hoax mails.
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