Three private schools in Ludhiana received bomb threat emails on Monday, prompting the evacuation of students and staff and extensive security search of the campuses, even as police found nothing suspicious and termed the messages a hoax.

The emails, received by schools in Model Town Extension, Dugri and Sherpur, threatened to bomb the campuses and also named Union home minister Amit Shah as a target. Shah is scheduled to address the concluding rally of the BJP’s Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra in Jalandhar on September 30.

School authorities alerted the police immediately after receiving the threats. Police teams, accompanied by anti-sabotage squads, rushed to the three campuses and conducted thorough searches. Students and staff were evacuated as a precautionary measure, while the alerts prompted several parents to leave their workplaces and rush to the schools to take their children home.

Police officials said nothing suspicious was found during the searches and preliminary investigation suggested that the emails were hoaxes. With the assistance of the cyber team, police are now attempting to trace the origin of the messages and identify those responsible.

The latest threats have once again raised concerns over the repeated targeting of schools in the city. Excluding the three emails received on Monday, Ludhiana schools have received 21 bomb threats since March.

The latest incident comes nine days after a bomb threat email was received by the district courts complex on September 12 during the National Lok Adalat proceedings.

That email warned of an explosion at 1.11 pm and also contained threats concerning the Mohali-Halwara airport and certain political leaders. The sender had claimed links with the Khalistan National Army and Babbar Khalsa (Parmar-Canada).

Ludhiana police commissioner Swapan Sharma said, “We are investigating the recurring threat emails. Cyber teams are working to establish whether the messages were sent by the same source or were part of separate attempts to trigger security alerts.”