Bomb threats: Five disposal squads for over 4.6K schools, Delhi Police tells HC

Responding to a plea about the threat of bomb attacks on schools in the national capital, the city police have told the Delhi High Court there are a total of five bomb disposal squads (BDS) and 18 bomb detection teams for over 4,600 schools here.

In a status report filed in the court on Thursday, the Delhi Police stated they had issued guidelines last year to deal with bomb threats to schools and an order deputing nodal officers for deployment of BDS in case of a bomb threat has also been issued.

It said 120 mock drills were conducted in schools between January 1, 2023 and May 6 this year.

Earlier, Justice Subramonium Prasad had asked police to give details of steps taken to ensure that school children are evacuated safely without panic in case of a bomb threat, with least dependency on parents. It had also sought data on the number of schools in each zone, the nodal authority concerned in each zone, the number of mock drills etc.

Petitioner Arpit Bhargava, a lawyer, filed the petition in 2023 in the wake of a hoax bomb threat to the Delhi Public School (DPS), Mathura Road.