Amid flight chaos, bomb threats now sweep 23 hotels in Kolkata, Tirupati, & Rajkot; security tightened

Nearly two dozen hotels across Kolkata, Tirupati, and Rajkot were thrust into chaos on Saturday after receiving bomb threats via email - that ultimately proved to be hoaxes. In Kolkata, the scare swept across 10 major hotels, including many upscale establishments, on the very day Union Home Minister Amit Shah was visiting West Bengal. Security forces activated routine anti-bomb protocols, yet no suspicious items were found. This comes amid given the recent surge in threats aimed at flights.

A Kolkata police officer was quoted by Times of India (TOI) as saying, "The emails followed the same pattern as hoax threats to schools earlier this year."

Kolkata police promptly alerted central agencies and officials disclosed that the email sender had employed the pseudonym “Reality Is Fake.” One chilling email reportedly read, “I have planted bombs on the grounds of your hotel. The bombs are hidden in black bags. They will detonate soon. You have little time to live. Evacuate.”

Meanwhile, in Tirupati, three hotels received similar bomb threats on Saturday, adding to the city’s pattern, as four hotels had been threatened over the previous two days. All threats turned out to be hoaxes. The emails referenced Jaffer Sadiq, a figure alleged to be a key player in a drug racket recently dismantled by central agencies in July. Saturday’s threats even named high-profile individuals, including Tamil Nadu Deputy CM Udayanidhi Stalin’s wife Kiruthiga and TN DGP Shankar Jiwal.

The emails further contained an ominous line: “Afzal Guru will be re-born! Al-Badr!”—a reference to the 2001 Parliament attack convict who was executed in 2013. Adding to the audacity, the email claimed that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s vehicle was “twinned with hotel IEDs.”

In Rajkot, Gujarat, the bomb scare echoed across 10 hotels around 12:45 p.m., with each receiving a threatening email from the ID "Kan Din." Rajkot Deputy Commissioner of Police Parthrajsinh Gohil said security forces conducted thorough searches of all hotels, but no suspicious items were uncovered.