Police in pursuit of Taj Mahal hoax bomber
A bomb scare that saw 1,000 tourists evacuated turned out to be a hoax
On the morning of 4 March 2021, Uttar Pradesh police in the city of Agra, India, received a phone call claiming that a bomb was due to go off at the Taj Mahal at any moment. Resultantly, around 1,000 tourists were made to evacuate the monument.
“The police control room received a call from an unidentified caller on Thursday morning, informing that an explosion will take place in Taj Mahal premises. An alert police responded by asking tourists to move out of the premises. Checking of Taj Mahal premises was undertaken in accordance with the standard operating procedure and the bomb disposal squad and others were sent inside the Taj Mahal premises,” said A Satish Ganesh, Additional Director General of Police, Agra zone.
However, unable to locate any such bomb, security personnel deemed it safe for tourists to return later that morning. “Nothing objectionable was found inside the Taj Mahal premises in the search by the field unit and, thus, the call about a bomb threat in Taj Mahal was deemed to be a hoax call,” stated Ganesh.
Rajeev Krishna, Additional Director General, added: “The surveillance teams were activated and the man who made the (hoax) bomb threat call has been identified and police teams are on the task.”