Chaos erupted at the Gujarat Assembly on Wednesday morning as the Assembly was evacuated due to a bomb threat received just before the commencement of the ongoing budget session. The alert was received at approximately 8:45 am — just fifteen minutes before the commencement of the day’s proceedings — as the Assembly received a message through one of its official email accounts that a bomb had been planted within the Assembly complex.
MLAs and parliamentary staff were ordered to vacate the premises as a precautionary measure while the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad moved in to conduct a sweep. Deputy Superintendent of Police Piyush Vanda confirmed that local teams began an intensive search for any suspicious devices as the politicians waited outside. After an hour-long security operation, Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police Ravi Teja Vasamsetty declared the building safe, confirming that nothing untoward had been found and that the threat was a hoax.
The House eventually resumed its work with an hour's delay. However, after the Question Hour session, Speaker Shankar Chaudhary addressed the members, saying that he had asked the police to carry out a thorough inspection. The incident has given rise to a rare sense of unity in both the treasury and opposition benches, with members of both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress party calling for a tough stance by the state government against the perpetrators of such "frequent" hoaxes.
BJP MLA Mahesh Kaswala commented that this is an attempt to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere in Gujarat, as such emails have been sent to educational institutions and courts in recent times. This is reflected in the comments made by Congress leader Imran Khedawala, who asked the authorities to take proper action so that such disruptions in daily life are avoided. It has been confirmed that a case is being registered with the police to identify the source of the email.
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