A bomb threat has led to increased security at Tamil Nadu’s famed Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple and Rameswaram’s Ramanathaswamy temple along with the All India Radio’s Kodaikanal office in Dindigul on Thursday, said top police sources.
Bomb squads, too, conducted searches at the three targets named in the email sent to the state police headquarters in Chennai on Thursday morning and efforts were on to trace the author of the email, said a top police officer, who didn’t wish to be named.
“More than 300 cops were deployed at Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple alone, along with the bomb squads, and all visitors were being screened thoroughly,” a top official with Madurai city police told HT.
Similar security arrangements were made at the Rameswaram temple in Ramanathapuram and the All India Radio’s Kodaikanal station.
Madurai City Police Commissioner S Davidson Devasirvatham, called the deployment “routine”, but sources in the department said the commissioner’s statement was aimed to prevent panic among devotees visiting the temples. Both the temples at Madurai and Rameswaram are historic Hindu temples, thronged by thousands of devotees every day.
“We have not stopped devotees from entering into the temples. After careful examination and security scanning, devotees are being allowed inside the temples,” said a senior police officer.
No explosive or threatening object has been found in searches so far suggesting the threat could be a hoax, but the police is not taking any chances.
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