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New Delhi, Nov 1 (IANS) Several cases of fake bomb threat calls were reported last week, the latest of which was from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Chennai, which also turned out to be a hoax.
Two weeks ago, a bomb threat was made at the Chennai residence of Vice President CP Radhakrishna. This also turned out to be a hoax.
While police officers from the respective states are looking into these cases individually, central agencies are probing a possible larger conspiracy. Investigation is going on into several fake threats given to schools mainly in Delhi. However, the matters that the agencies are looking at more closely are the fake threats given to airlines, which disrupted operations, resulting in massive losses and inconvenience.
An Intelligence Bureau official says his assessment is that some of the calls are personal. These individuals either suffer psychologically or have some personal grievance. However, those made at schools, airlines or the Vice President’s residence are part of a larger conspiracy, the officer said.
The agencies have discovered that these threats are calculated psy ops or psychological operations. Such operations, usually conducted by external actors, are aimed at spreading fear and panic. The threats to schools and airlines in particular are deliberate operations aimed not only at causing panic, but also at ensuring financial losses.
ISI has a dedicated wing that carries out cyber operations in India. The troubled migration of North-East Indians in 2012 was triggered by an electronic message that came from the ISI branch in Pakistan. Also in 1989, this wing had broadcast television footage of anti-communist revolts in Europe and urged Kashmiri Muslims to similarly stand up against New Delhi.
Intelligence agencies say that this wing of ISI will continue to be involved in such operations. Pakistan, facing humiliation after Operation Sindoor, is trying to portray India in a very bad light and hence is using every trick at its disposal. Agencies say that many more fake calls are expected in the coming days with the aim of creating panic in the country.
Police officials say that in 9 out of 10 cases they know that these are fake calls. However, it is necessary to follow a standard protocol and there is a lot of inconvenience at such times. If a school receives such a call, as per standard protocol, it has to remain closed for the entire day until clearance is received. In the case of an airline, the flight has to be halted or diverted until clearance for takeoff is obtained. This not only causes inconvenience but also causes huge losses to the airline industry. This is exactly what ISI wants and hence its cell has become very active.
Central agencies say that if we look at the data, there has been a huge increase in the number of such cases, which indicates that this is a well-coordinated operation. Only four such incidents related to airlines were reported in 2020, but in the last five years, airlines have received 804 fake calls. This number increased to 709 in the year 2024 alone, which shows that a huge increase has been seen in the number of such cases. In December 2024, 130 such calls were made in a span of nine days.
ISI aims to cause massive financial losses by targeting the airline industry. Each fake call causes a loss of more than Rs 3 crore to the airline. It also creates panic in the minds of people, which reduces their confidence in flying. An official said that the ISI is basically trying to weaken an already stressed industry and harm the Indian economy in the long run.
Experts say Indian agencies are taking measures to deal with this problem. This includes investing in more advanced call tracking and artificial intelligence-powered call analytics. Measures are also being taken to establish better quantum computing and aviation cyber security frameworks.
–IANS
Vicky/VD