The deputy police commissioner of India’s national capital airport announced that a 13-year-old boy has been arrested after sending a bomb threat to Delhi airport on June 17, alleging that there was an explosive device on a flight bound for Dubai. The police successfully tracked down the minor in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand and detained him.
The juvenile confessed that he has sent the menacing message just for fun, apparently inspired by the reports on social media sites, where he had come across stories of kids sending fake emails.
The latest incident occurred shortly after a different 13-year-old from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh state was arrested for sending a threat alleging the presence of a bomb on an Air Canada flight from Delhi to Toronto. The June 4 flight was quarantined and searched, and it was later determined that the threat was a false alarm. Following an inquiry, law enforcement found out that the boy just wanted to test if his message could be traced, sending the threat for ‘entertainment purposes’ only.
These latest episodes are just a small part of a recent surge of bombing hoaxes targeting flights departing from Delhi and other Indian airports.
Last month, an incident occurred where IndiGo Airlines flight from Delhi to the Indian sacred city of Varanasi had to be evacuated moments before departure. The reason behind this evacuation was the discovery of a menacing note in the lavatory by one of the pilots. Prior to this incident, another note containing the word “bomb” was found in the lavatory of an Air India flight traveling from New Delhi to Vadodara in the western state of Gujarat.
According to local media sources, last week alone, bomb threat emails were received by 41 airports, including Varanasi, Chennai, and Jaipur. As a result, standard anti-terrorist procedures were activated, resulting in significant flight delays that lasted for hours. All of these threats were determined to be hoaxes.
Yesterday also commemorated the 39th year since the tragic 1985 Air India bombing incident, where 329 individuals lost their lives.Terrorists planted a bomb on the Montreal to London flight, causing it to explode above the Atlantic Ocean, killing all people on board.
