Chandigarh

The Punjab Secretariat received a bomb threat e-mail on Thursday, prompting authorities to conduct an anti-sabotage check, officials said.

Police, fire brigade personnel, bomb disposal and dog squads, along with an ambulance, were rushed to the Secretariat complex. However, after an extensive search operation, no suspicious material or explosives were found, they said.

Despite the threat turning out to be a hoax, security has been stepped up in and around the premises as a precautionary measure.

Officials noted that a similar threat e-mail was received at the Secretariat last month as well, which was also later declared a hoax.

The Punjab and Haryana Secretariat is located in Sector-1 of Chandigarh, a high-security zone housing key government offices.

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The latest scare comes close on the heels of similar bomb threat messages reported in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, and schools in Haryana. All those threats were later found to be hoaxes, officials added.